Chamberlain was known by various nicknames during his basketball playing career. He hated the ones that called attention to his height such as Goliath and Wilt the Stilt, which was coined during his high school days by a Philadelphiasportswriter. He preferred The Big Dipper, Dippy or Dipper, all of which were inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways.[6] He was also called the Chairman of the Boards.

After his basketball career ended, Chamberlain played volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association, was president of this organization, and is enshrined in the IVA Hall of Fame for his contributions.[7] Chamberlain also was a successful businessman, authored several books, and appeared in the movie Conan the Destroyer. He was a lifelong bachelor and became notorious for his claim to having had sex with over 20,000 women.[8]

Professional career

Harlem Globetrotters (1958–1959)

After his frustrating junior year, Chamberlain wanted to become a professional player before finishing his senior year.[30] However, at that time, the NBA did not accept players who had not finished their last year of studies. Therefore, Chamberlain was prohibited from joining the NBA for a year, and decided to play for the Harlem Globetrotters in 1958 for a sum of $50,000.[2][4]

Chamberlain became a member of the Globetrotters team which made history by playing in Moscow in 1959, enjoyed a sold out tour of the USSR and prior to the start of a game at Moscow’s Lenin Central Stadium, were greeted by the General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev.[31] One particular Trotter skit involved Trotters captain Meadowlark Lemon collapsing to the ground, and instead of helping him up, Chamberlain threw him several feet high up in the air and caught him like a doll. “[Chamberlain] was the strongest athlete who ever lived”, the 210-pound Lemon recounted later.[32] In later years, Chamberlain frequently joined the Trotters in the off-season and fondly recalled his time there, because he was no longer jeered at or asked to break records, but just one of several artists who loved to entertain the crowd.[33] On March 9, 2000, Chamberlain’s number 13 was retired by the Trotters.[31]

Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors (1959–1965)

On October 24, 1959, Chamberlain finally made his debut as an NBA player, starting for the Philadelphia Warriors. The Warriors’ draft pick was highly unusual, as it was a so-called “territorial pick” despite the fact Chamberlain had spent his college years in Kansas, which is not a region covered by Philadelphia. However, Warriors owner Eddie Gottlieb, one of the NBA’s founding fathers, argued that Chamberlain had grown up in Philadelphia and had become popular there as a high school player; and because there were no NBA teams in Kansas, he argued, the Philadelphia Warriors held his territorial rights and could draft him. The NBA agreed, marking the only time in NBA history that a player was made a territorial selection based on his pre-college roots.[2] Chamberlain immediately became the NBA’s best paid player, earning $30,000 in his rookie contract; in comparison, the previous top earner was Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics with $25,000, and Gottlieb had bought the whole Warriors franchise for $25,000 seven years earlier.[34]

In the 1959–60 NBA season, Chamberlain joined a Warriors squad which was coached by Neil Johnston and contained Hall-of-Fame guards Tom Gola and Paul Arizin, plus Ernie Beck and his old rival Guy Rodgers—remarkably, all five Warriors starters were Philadelphians. In his first NBA game against the New York Knicks, the rookie center scored 43 points and 28 rebounds.[35] In his fourth game Philadelphia met the reigning champions, the Boston Celtics of Hall-of-Fame coach Red Auerbach, whose offer Chamberlain had snubbed several years before, and his old NCAA rival, Bill Russell, who was now lauded as one of the best defensive pivots in the game.[35] In what was the first of many Chamberlain-Russell match-ups, Chamberlain outscored Russell with 30 points versus 28 points, but Boston won the game. Cherry called this outcome the first of many great duels between these pivots.[35] The rivalry between Chamberlain and his perennial nemesis (Russell) would grow out to become one of the NBA’s greatest on-court rivalries of all time.[5] Nevertheless, the two also became friends in personal life, similar to later rivals Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.[36]

In his first NBA season, Chamberlain averaged 37.6 points and 27 rebounds, convincingly breaking the previous regular-season records. He only needed 56 games to score point number 2,102, which broke the all-time regular season scoring record of Bob Pettit, who needed 72 games to score 2,101 points.[37] Chamberlain won both the NBA Most Valuable Player and NBA Rookie of the Year awards in the same season—a feat equaled only by fellow Hall-of-Famer Wes Unseld in the 1968–69 NBA season—and broke eight NBA records.[4][37] Chamberlain capped off his rookie season awards by also winning the 1960 NBA All-Star Game MVP award with a 23 point, 25 rebound performance for the East. However, it also became evident that he was a miserable free throw shooter, hardly making half of his foul shots. As time progressed, Chamberlain became even worse, and acknowledged he was simply a head case on that matter.[38]

The Warriors entered the 1960 NBA Playoffs and beat the Syracuse Nationals, setting up a meeting versus the Eastern Division champions, the Boston Celtics. Cherry described how Celtics coach Red Auerbach ordered his forward Tom Heinsohn to commit personal fouls on Chamberlain: whenever the Warriors shot foul shots, Heinsohn grabbed and shoved Chamberlain to prevent him from running back quickly; his intention was that the Celtics would throw the ball in so fast that the prolific shotblocker Chamberlain was not back under his own basket yet, and Boston could score an easy fastbreak basket.[37] The teams split the first two games, but in Game 3, Chamberlain got fed up with Heinsohn and punched him. In the scuffle, the Warriors’ center injured his hand, and Philadelphia lost the next two games.[37] In Game 5, his hand was back to normal, and Chamberlain scored 50 points on Bill Russell. But in Game 6, Heinsohn got the last laugh, scoring the decisive basket with a last-second tip in.[37] The Warriors lost the series 2 games to 4.[2]

The rookie Chamberlain then shocked the Warriors’ fans by saying he was thinking of retiring. He was tired of being subjected to double- and triple teams, and teams coming down on him with hard fouls. Chamberlain feared he might lose his cool one day.[2] As Celtics forward Heinsohn said, himself no stranger to dirty play against Chamberlain: “Half the fouls against him [Chamberlain] were hard fouls … he took the most brutal pounding of any player ever”.[2] In addition, Chamberlain was seen as a freak of nature, jeered at by the fans and scorned by the media. As Chamberlain often said, quoting coach Alex Hannum’s explanation of his situation, “Nobody loves Goliath.”[4] Eddie Gottlieb coaxed Chamberlain back into the NBA, sweetening his return with a salary raise to $65,000.[39]

Chamberlain again failed to convert his play into team success, however, this time bowing out against the Syracuse Nationals in a three-game sweep.[41] Cherry noted that Chamberlain was “difficult” and did not respect coach Neil Johnston, who was unable to handle the star center. In retrospect Eddie Gottlieb remarked: “My mistake was not getting a stronghanded coach… [Johnston] wasn’t ready for big time.”[42]

In his third Warriors season, the Warriors were coached by Frank McGuire, the coach who had masterminded Chamberlain’s painful NCAA loss against the Tar Heels. In that year the center set several all-time records which have never been threatened since. In the 1961–62 NBA season he averaged 50.4 points and grabbed 25.7 rebounds per game.[40] And perhaps most astounding on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Wilt scored 100 points, shooting 36 of 63 from the field, and making 28 out of 32 free throws against the New York Knicks. Chamberlain’s 4,029 regular-season points made him the first and only player to break the 4,000-point barrier.[2] To place this in perspective the only player other than Chamberlain to break the 3,000-point barrier is Michael Jordan, who scored 3,041 points in the 1986–87 NBA season. Chamberlain once again broke the 2,000 rebound barrier by grabbing 2,052 rebounds. Additionally, he was on the hardwood for an average of 48.5 minutes, playing 3,882 of his team’s 3,890 minutes.[40] Because Chamberlain played in overtime games, he averaged more minutes per game than the 48 minutes in regulation; in fact, Chamberlain would have hit the 3,890 minute mark if he had not been ejected in one game after picking up his second technical foul with 8 minutes left to play.[43]

His extraordinary feats in the 1961–62 season were later subject of the book Wilt, 1962 by Gary M. Pomerantz (2005), who used Chamberlain as a metaphor for the uprising of Black America.[44] In addition to Chamberlain’s regular season accomplishments, he scored 42 points in the 1962 NBA All-Star Game—still the all-time record—on 17–23 shooting and pulled down 24 rebounds.

In the 1962 NBA Playoffs, the Warriors met the Boston Celtics again in the Eastern Division Finals, a team which Bob Cousy and Bill Russell called the greatest Celtics team of all time.[45] Each team won their home games, so the series was split 3–3 after six games. In a closely contested Game 7 Chamberlain tied the score at 107 with 16 seconds to go, but then Celtics shooting guard Sam Jones sank a clutch shot which won Boston the game and the series.[45][46] In later years Chamberlain was criticized for averaging 50 points, but not winning a title. In his defense Warriors coach Frank McGuire said “Wilt has been simply super-human”, and pointed out that the Warriors lacked a consistent second scorer, a playmaker, and a second big man to take the pressure off Chamberlain.[38]

In the 1962–63 NBA season, Eddie Gottlieb sold the Warriors franchise for an amount of $850,000 to a group of businessmen led by Marty Simmons from San Francisco, and the team relocated to become the San Francisco Warriors under a new coach, Bob Feerick.[47] This also meant, however, that the team broke apart, as Paul Arizin chose to retire rather than moving away from his family and his job at IBM in Philadelphia, and Tom Gola was homesick, requesting a trade to the lowly New York Knicks halfway through the season.[48] With both secondary scorers gone Chamberlain continued his array of statistical feats, scoring 44.8 points and grabbing 24.3 rebounds per game that year.[40] But despite Chamberlain’s individual success, the Warriors lost 49 of their 80 games and missed the playoffs.[49]

In the 1963–64 NBA season, Chamberlain got yet another new coach, Alex Hannum, and was joined by a promising rookie center, Nate Thurmond, who eventually would enter the Hall of Fame. Ex-soldier Hannum, who later entered the NBA Hall of Fame as a coach, was a crafty psychologist who emphasized defense and passing. Most importantly, he was not afraid to stand up to the dominant Chamberlain, who was known to “freeze out” (not communicate with) coaches he did not like.[50] Backed up by valuable rookie Thurmond, Chamberlain had another good season with 36.9 ppg and 22.3 rpg,[40] and the San Francisco Warriors went all the way to the NBA Finals. In that series they succumbed to the Boston Celtics team of Bill Russell again, this time losing 1–4.[51] But as Cherry remarked, not only Chamberlain, but in particular Hannum deserved much credit because he had basically had taken the bad 31–49 squad of last year plus Thurmond and made it into a NBA Finalist.[52] In the summer of 1964 Chamberlain, one of the prominent participants at the famed Rucker Park basketball court in New York City,[53] made the acquaintance of a tall, talented 17-year old teenager who played there. Soon, the young Lew Alcindor was allowed into his inner circle, and quickly idolized the ten-year older NBA player. Unfortunately, Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as Alcindor would name himself later, would develop an intense personal antipathy.[54]

In the following 1964–65 NBA season, the Warriors got off to a terrible start and ran into financial trouble. At the 1965 All-Star break Chamberlain was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, the new name of the relocated Syracuse Nationals. In return the Warriors received Paul Neumann, Connie Dierking, Lee Shaffer (who opted to retire rather than report to the Warriors), and $150,000.[2][4] When Chamberlain left the Warriors, owner Franklin Mieuli said: “Chamberlain is not an easy man to love [and] the fans in San Francisco never learned to love him. Wilt is easy to hate […] people came to see him lose.”[30]

Philadelphia 76ers (1965–1968)

After the trade Chamberlain found himself on a promising Sixers team that included guards Hal Greer, a future Hall-of-Famer, and talented role players Larry Costello, Chet Walker and Lucious Jackson. Cherry remarks that there was a certain tension within the team: Greer was the formerly undisputed leader and was not willing to give up his authority, and Jackson, a talented center, was now forced to play power forward because Chamberlain blocked the center spot; however, as the season progressed, the three began to mesh better.[55] Chamberlain did not care for the Sixer’s coach, Dolph Schayes, because Schayes, according to him, had made several disrespectful remarks when they were rival players in the NBA.[55]

Statistically, Chamberlain was again outstanding, posting 34.7 ppg and 22.9 rpg for the second half of the season.[40] After defeating the Cincinnati Royals led by Oscar Robertson in the 1965 NBA Playoffs, the Sixers met Chamberlain’s familiar rival, the Boston Celtics. The press called it an even matchup in all positions, even at center, where Bill Russell was expected to give Chamberlain a tough battle.[56] Indeed, the two teams split the first six games, and because of the better season record, the last game was held in the Celtics’ Boston Garden. In that Game 7, both centers were marvelous: Chamberlain scored 30 points and 32 rebounds, and Russell logged 16 points, 27 rebounds and 8 assists.[56] In the final minute, Chamberlain hit two clutch free throws and slam dunked on Russell, bringing Boston’s lead down to 1 at 110–109 with five seconds left. Russell botched the inbounds pass, hitting a guide wire over the backboard and giving the ball back to the Sixers. Coach Schayes called timeout, and decided to run the last play over Hal Greer rather than Chamberlain, because he feared the Celtics would intentionally foul him because he was a poor foul shooter. But when Greer attempted to inbound the ball, John Havlicek stole it to preserve the Celtics’ lead.[57] For the fifth time in seven years, Russell’s team had deprived Chamberlain of the title.[2] According to Chamberlain, that was the time that people started calling him “loser”.[4] Additionally, in an April 1965 issue of Sports Illustrated Chamberlain conducted an interview entitled “My Life In A Bush League” where he criticized his fellow players, coaches, and NBA administrators.[58] Chamberlain later commented that he could see in hindsight how the interview was instrumental in damaging his public image.[58]

In the 1965–66 NBA season the Sixers experienced real tragedy when Ike Richman, the Sixers’ co-owner as well as Chamberlain’s confidant and lawyer, died of a coronary. Still reeling from the shock, the Sixers posted a 55–25 regular season record, and for his strong play, Chamberlain was handed his second MVP award.[5] In that season, the center again dominated his opposition by scoring 33.5 points and 24.6 rebounds a game, leading the league in both categories.[40] In one particular game, Chamberlain blocked a dunk attempt by Gus Johnson so hard that he dislocated Johnson’s shoulder.[59] Off the court, however, Chamberlain’s commitment to the cause was doubted, as Chamberlain was a late sleeper, lived in New York and preferred to commute to Philadelphia rather than live there, and he was only available afternoon for training. Because Schayes did not want to risk angering his best player, he scheduled the daily workout at 4 pm; this angered the team, who preferred an early schedule to have the afternoon off, but Schayes just said: “There is no other way.”[60] Irv Kosloff, who now owned the Sixers alone after Richman’s death, pleaded to him to move to Philadelphia during the season, but he was turned down.[61]

In the 1966 NBA Playoffs, the Sixers met their familiar foes, the Celtics, and for the first time even had home court advantage. However, Boston easily won the first two games on the road, winning 115–96 and 114–93; Chamberlain played within his usual range, but his supporting cast shot under 40%. This caused sports journalist Joe McGinnis to comment: “The Celtics played like champions and the Sixers just played.”[61] In Game 3, Chamberlain scored 31 points and 27 rebounds for an important road win, and the next day, coach Schayes planned to hold a joint team practice. However, Chamberlain said he was “too tired” to attend, and even refused Schayes’ plea to at least show up and shoot a few foul shots with the team. In Game 4, Boston won 114–108.[61] Prior to Game 5, Chamberlain was nowhere to be found, skipping practice and being non-accessible. Outwardly, Schayes defended his star center as “excused from practice”, but his team mates knew the truth and were much less forgiving.[61] In Game 5 itself, Chamberlain was superb, scoring 46 points and 34 rebounds, but the Celtics won the game 120–112 and the series.[62] Cherry is highly critical of Chamberlain: while conceding he was the only Sixers player who performed in the series, he points out his unprofessional, egotistical behavior and being a bad example for his team mates.[61]

Prior to the 1966–67 NBA season, the friendly but unassertive Dolph Schayes was replaced by a familiar face, the crafty but firm Alex Hannum. In what Cherry calls a tumultuous locker room meeting, Hannum addressed several key issues he observed during the last season, several of them putting Chamberlain in an unfavorable light. Sixers forward Chet Walker testified that on several occasions, players had to pull Chamberlain and Hannum apart to prevent a fistfight.[63] Fellow forward Billy Cunningham observed that “Hannum showed who was the boss” and “never backed down”, and by doing this, won Chamberlain’s respect.[63] When emotions cooled off, Hannum pointed out that Chamberlain and he were on the same side, trying to win a championship ring; but to pull this off, the center – like all others – needed to “act like a man” and behave accordingly on and off the court.[63] Concerning basketball, he persuaded him to change his style of play. Loaded with several other players who could score, such as future Hall-of-Famers Hal Greer and newcomer Billy Cunningham, Hannum wanted Chamberlain to concentrate more on defense.[4][64]

As a result, Chamberlain was less dominant, taking only 14% of the team’s shots (in his 50.4 ppg season 1961–62, it had been 35.3%), but extremely efficient: he averaged a career-low 24.1 points, but he led the league in rebounds (24.2), ended third in assists (7.8), had a record breaking .683 field goal accuracy, and played strong defense.[40] For these feats, Chamberlain earned his third MVP award. The Sixers charged their way to a then-record 68–13 season, including a record 46–4 start.[2] In addition, the formerly egotistical Chamberlain began to praise his team mates, lauding hardworking Luke Jackson as the “ultimate power forward”, calling Hal Greer a deadly jumpshooter, and point guard Wali Jones an excellent defender and outsider scorer.[63] Off the court, the center invited the team to restaurants and paid the entire bill, knowing he earned 10 times more than all the others.[63] Greer, who was considered a consummate professional and often clashed with the center because of his attitude, spoke positively of the new Wilt Chamberlain: “You knew in a minute the Big Fella [Chamberlain] was ready to go… and everybody would follow.”[63]

In the 1967 NBA Playoffs, the Sixers yet again battled the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Division Finals, and again held home court advantage. In Game 1, the Sixers beat Boston 127–112, powered by Hal Greer’s 39 points and Chamberlain’s unofficial quadruple double, with 24 points, 32 rebounds, 13 assists and (unofficially counted) 12 blocks.[65] In Game 2, the Sixers won 107–102 in overtime, and player-coach Russell grudgingly praised Chamberlain for intimidating the Celtics into taking low percentage shots from further outside.[65] In Game 3, Chamberlain grabbed 41 rebounds and helped the Sixers win 115–104. The Celtics prevented a sweep by winning Game 4 with 121–117, but in Game 5, the Sixers simply overpowered the Celtics 140–116, which effectively ended Boston’s historical run of 8 consecutive NBA titles. The Sixers’ center scored 29 points, 36 rebounds and 13 assists and was highly praised by Celtics Russell and K.C. Jones.[65]

In the 1967 NBA Finals, the Sixers were pitted against Chamberlain’s old team, the San Francisco Warriors of his one-time backup Nate Thurmond and star forward Rick Barry. The Sixers won the first two games, with Chamberlain and Greer taking credit for respectively defensive dominance and clutch shooting, but San Francisco won two of the next three games, so Philadelphia was up 3–2 prior to Game 6.[65] In Game 6, the Warriors were trailing by one point with 15 seconds left. For the last play, Thurmond and Barry were assigned to do a pick and roll against Chamberlain and whoever would guard Barry. However, the Sixers foiled this plan: when Barry ran past Thurmond’s pick and drove to the basket, he was picked up by Chet Walker, making it impossible to shoot; Thurmond was covered by Chamberlain, making it impossible to pass. Barry botched his shot attempt, and the Sixers won the championship.[65] Chamberlain said: “It is a wonderful to be a part of the greatest team in basketball… being a champion is like having a big round glow inside of you.”[65] He had contributed with 17.7 ppg and 28.7 rpg against fellow future Hall-of-Fame pivot Nate Thurmond, never failing to snare at least 23 rebounds in the six games.[4][66] Chamberlain himself described the team as the best in NBA history.[40] In 2002, writer Wayne Lynch wrote a book about this remarkable Sixers season, Season of the 76ers, centering on Chamberlain.

In the 1967–68 NBA season, matters began to turn sour between Chamberlain and the Sixers’ sole surviving owner, Irv Kosloff. This conflict had been going along for a while: in 1965, Chamberlain asserted that he and the late Richman had worked out a deal which would give the center 25% of the franchise once he had ended his career.[67] Although there is no written proof for or against, Ex-Sixers coach Dolph Schayes and Sixers lawyer Alan Levitt assumed Chamberlain was right;[65] in any case, Kosloff declined the request, leaving Chamberlain livid and willing to jump to the rival ABA once his contract ended in 1967. Kosloff and Chamberlain worked out a truce, and later signed a one-year, $250,000 contract.[65]

On the hardwood, Chamberlain continued his focus on team play and registered 24.3 points and 23.8 rebounds a game for the season.[40] The 76ers had the best record in the league for the third straight season. Chamberlain made history by becoming the first and only center in NBA history to finish the season as the leader in assists, his 702 beating runner-up, Hall-of-Fame point guardLenny Wilkens‘ total by 23.[20] For these feats, Chamberlain won his fourth and last MVP title.[5] Another landmark was his 25,000th point, making him the first ever player to score these many points: he gave the ball to his team physician Dr. Stan Lorber.[68] Winning 62 games, the Sixers easily took the first playoff berth of the 1968 NBA Playoffs. In the 1968 Eastern Division Semifinals, they were pitted against the New York Knicks. In a physically tough matchup, the Sixers lost sixth man Billy Cunningham, who broke his hand, and Chamberlain, Hal Greer and Luke Jackson were struggling with inflamed feet, bad knees and pulled hamstrings, respectively. Going ahead 3–2, the Sixers defeated the Knicks 115–97 in Game 6 after Chamberlain scored 25 points and 27 rebounds: he had a successful series in which he led both teams in points (153), rebounds (145) and assists (38).[69]

In the 1968 Eastern Division Finals, the Sixers yet again met the Boston Celtics, again with home court advantage, and this time as reigning champions. Despite the Sixers’ injury woes, coach Hannum was confident to “take the Celtics in less than seven games”: he pointed out the age of the Celtics, who were built around Bill Russell and guard Sam Jones, both 34.[70] But then, national tragedy struck as Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. With eight of the ten starting players on the Sixers and Celtics being African-American, both teams were in deep shock, and there were calls to cancel the series.[70] In a game called as “unreal” and “devoid of emotion”, the Sixers lost 118–127 on April 5. After attending Dr. King’s funeral, Chamberlain called out to the angry rioters who were setting fires all over the country, stating Dr. King would not have approved.[70] In Game 2, Philadelphia evened the series with 115–106, and in Games 3 and 4, the Sixers won, with Chamberlain suspiciously often played by Celtics backup center Wayne Embry, causing the press to speculate Russell was worn down.[70] Prior to Game 5, the Celtics seemed dead: no NBA team had ever come back from a 1–3 deficit.[70] However, the Celtics rallied back, winning Game 5 with 122–104 and Game 6 with 114–106, powered by a spirited John Havlicek and helped by a terrible Sixers shooting slump.[70]

What followed was the first of three consecutive controversial and painful Game 7s which Wilt Chamberlain played. In that Game 7, the Sixers could not get their act together: 15,202 stunned Philadelphia fans witnessed a historic 96–100 defeat, making it the first time in NBA history a team lost a series after leading 3–1. Although Cherry points out that the Sixers shot badly (Hal Greer, Wali Jones, Chet Walker, Luke Jackson and Matt Guokas hit a combined 25 of 74 shots) and Chamberlain grabbed 34 rebounds and shot 4-of-9, the center himself scored only 14 points.[70] In the second half of Game 7, Chamberlain did not attempt a single shot from the field.[64] Cherry observes a strange pattern in that game: in a typical Sixers game, Chamberlain got the ball 60 times in the low post, but in that Game 7, only 23 times, and only seven times in the third and only two times in the fourth quarter.[70] Chamberlain later blamed coach Hannum for the lack of touches (i.e. scoring opportunities), a point which the coach conceded himself, but Cherry points out that Chamberlain, who always thought of himself as the best player of all time, should have been outspoken enough to demand the ball himself.[70] The loss meant that Chamberlain was now 1–6 in playoff series against the Celtics.

After that season, coach Alex Hannum wanted to be closer to his family on the West Coast; he left the Sixers to coach the Oakland Oaks in the newly founded American Basketball Association.[71] Chamberlain then asked for a trade, and Sixers general managerJack Ramsay traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers for Darrall Imhoff, Archie Clark and Jerry Chambers.[64] The motivation for this move remains in dispute. According to sportswriter Roland Lazenby, a journalist close to the Lakers, Chamberlain was angry at Kosloff for breaking the alleged Richman-Chamberlain deal,[30] but according to Dr. Jack Ramsay, who was the Sixers general manager then, Chamberlain also threatened to jump to the ABA after Hannum left, and forced the trade himself.[64] Cherry finally adds several personal reasons: the center felt he had grown too big for Philadelphia, sought the presence of fellow celebrities (which were plenty in L.A.) and finally also desired the opportunity to date white women, which was possible for a black man in L.A. but hard to imagine elsewhere back then.[72]

Los Angeles Lakers (1968–1973)

On July 9, 1968, Chamberlain was the centerpiece of a major trade between the 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers, who sent center Darrall Imhoff (the unfortunate ex-Knicks center who started against Chamberlain when the latter scored 100 points), forward Jerry Chambers and guard Archie Clark to Philadelphia, making it the first time a reigning NBA Most Valuable Player was traded the next season.[73] Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke gave Chamberlain an unprecedented contract, paying him $250,000 after taxes; in comparison, previous Laker top earner Jerry West was paid $100,000 before taxes.[74]

Chamberlain joined a squad which featured Hall-of-Fame forward Elgin Baylor and Hall-of-Fame guard Jerry West, along with backup center Mel Counts, forwards Keith Erickson and Tom Hawkins and talented but diminutive 5 ft 11 in guard Johnny Egan. The lack of a second guard next to West (and thus, the lack of speed and quickness) concerned coach Butch Van Breda Kolff; after losing Clark and Gail Goodrich, who joined the Phoenix Suns after the 1968 expansion draft, he said: “Egan gets murdered on defense because of his [lack of] size… but if I don’t play him, we look like a bunch of trucks.”[75] In addition, Cherry observed that Chamberlain was neither a natural leader nor a loyal follower, which made him difficult to fit in.[74] While he was on cordial terms with Jerry West, he often argued with team captain Elgin Baylor; regarding Baylor, he later explained: “We were good friends, but… [in] black culture… you never let the other guy one-up you.”[74] The greatest problem was his tense relationship with Lakers coach Butch Van Breda Kolff: pejoratively calling the new recruit “The Load”, he later complained that Chamberlain was egotistical, never respected him, too often slacked off in practice and focused too much on his own statistics.[74] In return, the center blasted Van Breda Kolff as “the dumbest and worst coach ever”.[30][74] Laker Keith Erickson observed that “Butch catered to Elgin and Jerry… and that is not a good way to get on Wilt’s side… that relationship was doomed from the start.”[74]

Chamberlain experienced a problematic and often frustrating season. Van Breda Kolff benched him several times, which never happened in his career before; in mid-season, the perennial scoring champion had two games in which he scored only six and then only 2 points.[75] Playing through his problems, Chamberlain averaged 20.5 points and 21.1 rebounds a game that season.[40] However, Jack Kent Cooke was pleased, because since acquiring Chamberlain, ticket sales had gone up by 11 percent.[75]

In the 1969 playoffs, the Lakers dispatched of Chamberlain’s old club, the San Francisco Warriors with 4–2 after losing the first two games, and then defeated the Atlanta Hawks and met Chamberlain’s familiar rivals, Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics.[75] Going into the series as 3-to-1 favorites, the Lakers won their first two games, but dropped the next two. Chamberlain was criticized as a non-factor in the series, getting neutralized by Bill Russell with little effort.[75] But in Game 5, the Lakers center started to come to life, scoring 13 points and grabbing 31 rebounds, helping to lead Los Angeles to a 117–104 win. In Game 6, the Celtics won 99–90, and Chamberlain only scored eight points; Cherry accuses him of choking, because if “Chamberlain had came up big and put up a normal 30 point scoring night”, L.A. would have probably won its first championship.[75]

Game 7 featured a surreal scene: in anticipation of a Lakers win, Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had put up thousands of balloons in the rafters of the Forum in Los Angeles. This display of arrogance motivated the Celtics and angered Jerry West.[75] In that match, Chamberlain experienced his second Game 7 debacle. The Lakers trailed by 76–91 after three quarters. But powered by a limping Jerry West, who played with a deep thigh bruise after Game 5, the Lakers mounted a comeback; but then, Chamberlain twisted his knee after a rebound and had to be replaced by Mel Counts. With three minutes to go, and West and Counts hitting clutch baskets, the Lakers trailed by only 102–103. But when the Celtics tightened up their defense, the Lakers committed costly turnovers and lost the game 106–108 despite 42 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists from Jerry West, who became the first and only NBA Finals MVP from the losing team.[75]

After the game, the key question was why Chamberlain had stayed out the final six minutes. At the time of his final substitution, he had scored 18 points (hitting 7 of his 8 shots) and grabbed 27 rebounds, significantly better than the 10 points of Mel Counts on 4-of-13 shooting.[75] To justify a late minute sub, either Chamberlain’s injury had to be grave, or Van Breda Kolff’s trust in Counts absolute. Among others, Bill Russell did not believe Chamberlain’s injury was grave, and openly accused him of being a malingerer: “Any injury short of a broken leg or a broken back is not enough.”[75] Ironically, Van Breda Kolff came to Chamberlain’s defense, insisting the often-maligned Lakers center hardly was able to move in the end.[75] He himself was perceived as “pig-headed” for benching Chamberlain, and soon resigned as a Lakers coach.[75] Cherry comments that according to some journalists, that Game 7 “destroyed two careers: Wilt’s because he wouldn’t take over and Van Breda Kolff because he wouldn’t give in”.[75]

In his second Lakers year under new coach Joe Mullaney, Chamberlain seriously injured his knee. He was injured in the ninth game of the schedule and missed the next several months before appearing in the final three games of the 82-game regular season. Owing to a great start, he managed to average 27.3 points, 18.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game.[40] Again, the Lakers charged through the playoffs, and in the 1970 NBA Finals, the Lakers were pitted against the New York Knicks, loaded with future Hall-of-Famers Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, and Walt Frazier. Cherry observed that Reed, a prolific midrange shooter, was a bad matchup for Chamberlain: having lost lateral quickness due to his injury, the Lakers center was often too slow to block Reed’s preferred high post jump shots.[76] In Game 1, Reed masterminded a 124–112 win in which he scored 37 points on Chamberlain. In Game 2, Chamberlain scored 19 points, grabbed 24 rebounds and blocked Reed’s shot in the final seconds, leading the Lakers to a 105–103 win.[76] Game 3 featured Jerry West hitting an unbelievable 60-foot buzzer beater to tie the game at 102; however, the Knicks took the game 111–108.[76] In Game 4, Chamberlain scored 18 points and grabbed 25 rebounds and helped tie the series at two games each.[76] But in Game 5, things seemed to go awry for the Knicks: trailing by double digits, Reed pulled his thigh muscle and seemed to be done for the series. By conventional wisdom, Chamberlain now should have dominated against little-used Knicks backup centers Nate Bowman and Bill Hosket or forwards Bradley and DeBusschere, who gave up more than half a foot against the Lakers center.[76] Instead, the Lakers gave away their 13 point halftime lead and succumbed to the aggressive Knicks defense: L.A. committed 19 second half turnovers, and the two main scorers Chamberlain and West shot the ball only three and two times, respectively, in the entire second half.[76] The Lakers lost 100–107 in what was called one of the greatest comebacks in NBA Finals history.[76] In Game 6, Chamberlain scored 45 points and almost single-handedly equalized the series in a 135–113 Lakers win, and with Reed out, the Knicks seemed doomed prior to Game 7 in New York.[76]

However, the hero of that Game 7 was Willis Reed. He famously hobbled up court, scored the first four points, and inspired his team to one of the most famous playoff upsets of all time.[77] At halftime, the Knicks were already up by 27, and despite scoring 21 points, Chamberlain could not prevent his third consecutive painful Game 7 loss. The Lakers center himself was criticized for his inability to dominate his injured counterpart, but Cherry pointed out that Chamberlain’s feat – coming back from career-threatening injury himself – was too quickly forgotten.[76]

In the 1970–71 NBA season, the Lakers made a notable move by signing future Hall-of-Fame guard Gail Goodrich, who came back from the Phoenix Suns after playing for L.A. until 1968. Chamberlain averaged 20.7 points, 18.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists,[40] once again led the NBA in rebounding and the Lakers won the Pacific Division title. After losing Elgin Baylor to an Achilles tendon rupture that effectively ended his career, and especially after losing Jerry West after a knee injury, the handicapped Lakers were seen as underdogs against the Milwaukee Bucks of freshly crowned MVP Lew Alcindor, better known under his later Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and veteran Hall-of-Fame guard Oscar Robertson in the Western Conference Finals. Winning the regular season with 66 wins, the Bucks were seen as favourites against the depleted Lakers; still, many pundits were looking forward to the matchup between the 34-year old Chamberlain and the 24-year old Abdul-Jabbar.[78] In Game 1, Abdul-Jabbar outscored Chamberlain 32–22, and the Bucks won 106–85. In Game 2, the Bucks won again despite the Lakers center scoring 26 points, four more than his Milwaukee counterpart. Prior to Game 3, things became even worse for the Lakers when Keith Erickson, West’s stand-in, had an appendectomy and was out for the season; with only rookie Jim McMillan easing the scoring pressure, Chamberlain churned out a 24-point-24-rebound effort in Game 4 to a Lakers win, but finally the Bucks soundly defeated the Lakers 116–98 at home.[79] Although Chamberlain lost, he was lauded for holding his own against MVP Abdul-Jabbar, who was not only 10 years younger but still had two healthy knees.[78]

After the 1971 playoffs, Chamberlain had an offer to fight heavyweight boxing legend Muhammad Ali. The 15-round fight would have taken place on July 26, 1971 in the Houston Astrodome but Chamberlain finally refused the match.[20] In an 1999 interview, Chamberlain stated that boxing trainer Cus D’Amato wanted to train him for the fight, and they offered Ali and him $5 million each to battle each other. However, after checking back with his father, Chamberlain finally said no.[80][81]

In the 1971–72 NBA season, the Lakers hired former Celtics star guard Bill Sharman as head coach. Sharman introduced morning shoot-arounds, in which the perennial latecomer Chamberlain regularly participated (in contrast to earlier years with Dolph Schayes) and transformed him into a defensive-minded, low-scoring post defender in the mold of his old rival Bill Russell.[82] Furthermore, he told Chamberlain to use his rebounding and passing skills to quickly initiate fastbreaks to his teammates, forwards Happy Hairston and MacMillian, guards Goodrich and West, and bench players Flynn Robinson and LeRoy Ellis.[83]

While no longer being the main scorer, Chamberlain was named the new captain of the Lakers: after his Achilles tendon rupture, perennial captain Elgin Baylor had ended his career, leaving a void the center now filled. Initially, Sharman had wanted Chamberlain and West to share this duty, but West declined, stating that he was injury-prone and wanted to solely concentrate on the game.[84] Chamberlain accepted his new roles and posted an all-time low 14.8 points, but also won the rebound crown with 19.2 rpg and led the league with a .649 field goal percentage.[40] Powered by his defensive presence, the Lakers would embark on an unprecedented 33 game win streak en route to a then-record 69 wins in the regular season.

In the post-season, the Lakers defeated the Chicago Bulls in a sweep,[85] then went on to face the Milwaukee Bucks of young superstar center and regular-season MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar again. The matchup between Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar was hailed by LIFE magazine as the greatest matchup in all of sports. Chamberlain would help lead the Lakers past Jabbar and the Bucks in 6 games.[85] Particularly, Chamberlain was lauded for his final Game 6 performance, which the Lakers won 106–100 after trailing by 10 points in the fourth quarter: he scored 24 points and 22 rebounds, played a complete 48 minutes and outsprinted the younger Bucks center on several late Lakers fast breaks.[86] Jerry West called it “the greatest ball-busting performance I have ever seen.”[86] Chamberlain performed so well in the series that TIME magazine stated, “In the N.B.A.’s western division title series with Milwaukee, he (Chamberlain) decisively outplayed basketball’s newest giant superstar, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, eleven years his junior.”[87]

In the 1972 NBA Finals, the Lakers again met the New York Knicks; the Knicks were shorthanded after losing Willis Reed to injury, and so, undersized 6’8″ Jerry Lucas had the task to defend against the 7’1″ Chamberlain.[88] However, prolific outside shooter Lucas helped New York to win Game 1, hitting 9 of his 11 shots in the first half alone; in Game 2, which the Lakers won 106–92, Chamberlain put Lucas into foul trouble, and the Knicks lost defensive power forward Dave DeBusschere to injury.[88] In Game 3, Chamberlain scored 26 points and grabbed 20 rebounds for another Lakers win, and in a fiercely battled Game 4, the Lakers center was with playing with five fouls late in the match. Having never fouled out in his NBA career – a feat he was very proud of – he played aggressive defense despite the risk of fouling out, and blocked two of Lucas’ shots in overtime, proving those wrong who said he only played for his own stats; he ended scoring a game-high 27 points.[88] But in that game, he had fallen on his right hand, and was said to have “sprained” it; in fact, it was broken. For Game 5, Chamberlain’s hands were packed into thick pads normally destined for defensive linesmen in American Football; he was offered a painkilling shot, but refused because he feared he would lose his shooting touch if his hands became numb.[88] In Game 5, Chamberlain recorded 24 points, 29 rebounds, 8 assists and 8 blocked shots. (While blocked shots were not an official NBA stat at that time, announcer Keith Jackson counted up the block shots during the broadcast.[citation needed]) Chamberlain’s outstanding all-around performance helped the L.A. Lakers win their first championship with a decisive 114–100 win.[88] Chamberlain was named Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals,[40] and was admired for dominating the Knicks in Game 5 while playing injured.[88]

The 1972–73 NBA season was to be Chamberlain’s last, although he did not know this at the time. In his last NBA year, the Lakers had lost substance: Happy Hairston was injured, Flynn Robinson and LeRoy Ellis had left L.A., and veteran Jerry West struggled with sensitive hamstrings.[89] Chamberlain averaged 13.2 points and 18.6 rebounds, still enough to win the rebounding crown for the 11th time in his career. In addition, he shot with an all-time NBA record .727 accuracy from the field, bettering his own mark of .683 from the 1966–67 season—neither percentage has been topped by any other player.[40] It was the ninth time Chamberlain would lead the league in field goal percentage. The Lakers won 60 games in the regular season and reached the 1973 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. This time, the tables were turned: the Knicks now featured a healthy team with a rejuvenated Willis Reed, and the Lakers were now handicapped by several injuries.[89]

In that series, the Lakers won Game 1 with 115–112, but the Knicks won Games 2 and 3; things worsened when Jerry West injured his hamstring yet again. In Game 4, the shorthanded Lakers were no match for New York, and in Game 5, the valiant, but injured West and Hairston had miserable games, and despite Chamberlain scoring 23 points and grabbing 21 rebounds, the Lakers lost 93–102 and the series.[90][91] Chamberlain did not yet know that this loss was the last professional game of his career.

San Diego Conquistadors (1973)

In 1973, the San Diego Conquistadors of the NBA rival league ABA signed Chamberlain as a player-coach for a $600,000 salary.[92] However, the Lakers sued their former star and successfully prevented him from actually playing, because he still owed them the option year of his contract.[4] Barred from playing, Chamberlain mostly left the coaching duties to his assistant Stan Albeck, who recalled: “Chamberlain… has a great feel for pro basketball… [but] the day-to-day things that are an important part of basketball… just bored him. He did not have the patience.”[92] The players were split on Chamberlain, who was seen as competent, but often indifferent and more occupied with promotion of his autobiography Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door than with coaching.[92] In his single season as a coach, the “Qs”, as the Conquistadors were colloquially called, went a mediocre 37–47 in the regular season and lost against the Utah Stars in the Division Semifinals.[92] However, Chamberlain was not pleased by the meagre Qs’ attendance: the crowd was an average 1,843, hardly filling half of the Qs’ small San Diego 3,200-seat sports arena.[92] After the season, Chamberlain retired from professional basketball.

Post-NBA career

After his stint with the Qs, Chamberlain successfully went into business and entertainment, made money in stocks and real estate, opened a popular Harlem nightclub, Big Wilt’s Smalls Paradise, and invested in broodmares.[33] Chamberlain also sponsored his personal professional volleyball and track and field teams, and also provided high-level teams for girls and women in basketball, track, volleyball and softball,[93] and made money by appearing in ads for TWA, American Express, Volkswagen, Drexel Burnham, Le Tigre Clothing and Foot Locker.[33]

After his basketball career, volleyball became Chamberlain’s new passion: being a talented hobby volleyballer (albeit due to lack of technique, not as excellent as volleyball All-American Lakers team mate Keith Erickson) during his Lakers days,[90] he became board member of the newly founded International Volleyball Association in 1974 and became its president one year later.[7] As a testament to his importance, the IVA All-Star game was televised only because Chamberlain also played in it: he rose to the challenge and was named the game’s MVP.[7] He played occasional matches for the IVA Seattle Smashers before the league folded in 1979. However, Chamberlain had promoted the sport so effectively that he was named to the Volleyball Hall of Fame: he became one of the few athletes who were enshrined in different sports.[7]

In addition, Chamberlain played a villainous warrior and counterpart of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film Conan the Destroyer (1984), where his most remarkable spoken phrase is “thieves should be hanged”: This caused his physician, Dr. Lorber, to jokingly greet Chamberlain with “thieves should be hanged” whenever they met.[94] When million-dollar contracts became common in the NBA, Chamberlain increasingly felt he had been underpaid during his career.[95] A result of this resentment was the 1997 book Who’s Running the Asylum? Inside the Insane World of Sports Today (1997), in which he harshly criticized the NBA of the 1990s for being too disrespectful of players of the past.[96]

Even far beyond his playing days, Chamberlain was a very fit person. In his mid-forties, he was able to humble rookie Magic Johnson in practice,[97] and even in the 1980s, he flirted with making a comeback in the NBA. In the 1980–81 NBA season, coach Larry Brown recalled that the 45-year-old Chamberlain had received an offer from the Cleveland Cavaliers. When Chamberlain was 50, the New Jersey Nets had the same idea, and Chamberlain declined again.[97] However, he would continue to epitomize physical fitness for years to come, including participating in several marathons.[4]

In 1992, Chamberlain was briefly hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat.[98] According to those close to him, he eventually began taking medication for his heart troubles.[99][100] On October 12, 1999, rescuers found him dead upon being summoned to his Bel Air, California, home.[101] His agent reported, after speaking with Chamberlain’s cardiologist, that Chamberlain died of congestive heart failure, his health having deteriorated rapidly during the month preceding his death.[102]

The 7-foot-1, two-time NBA champion Chamberlain is universally regarded as one of the most extraordinary and dominant basketball players ever.[5] The 1972 NBA Finals MVP is holder of numerous official NBA all-time records, establishing himself as a scoring champion, all-time top rebounder and setting yardsticks in field goal accuracy. He was also responsible for several rule changes, including widening the lane from 12 to 16 feet, as well as changes to rules regarding inbounding the ball[103] and shooting free throws.[97] Chamberlain’s main weakness was his notoriously poor free throw shooting, where he has the third lowest career free throw percentage in NBA history (based on a minimum of 1200 attempts). He later acknowledged that he was a “psycho case” in this matter.[38] On the other hand, he committed surprisingly few fouls during his NBA career despite the rugged play in the post. Chamberlain never fouled out of a regular season or playoff game in his 14 years in the NBA. His career average was only 2.0 fouls per game despite having average 45.6 minutes per game over his career. He had 5 seasons where he committed less than 2 fouls per game, with a career low of 1.5 fouls during the 1961-62 season. That same season he averaged 50.4 points per game. His fouls per 36 minutes (a stat used to compare players that average vastly different minutes) was a remarkable 1.6 fouls per game.[3]

For his feats, Chamberlain was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, ranked #2 in SLAM Magazine‘s Top 50 NBA Players of all time[104] and #13 in the ESPN list “Top North American athletes of the century”[105] and voted second best center of all time by ESPN behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on March 6, 2007.[106] His on-court rivalry against Bill Russell is acknowledged as one of the greatest NBA individual rivalries of all time.[5]

In political philosophy Chamberlain is known for the so-called “Wilt Chamberlain Argument.” LibertarianphilosopherRobert Nozick states that if fans agreed to pay to see him play, then Chamberlain was entitled to a greater amount of resources because the inequality will have resulted from a free exchange of resources. Nozick used Chamberlain as a real-life example to argue that non-entitlement theories of justice were inherently unjust.[107]

Despite his very public persona, Chamberlain’s philanthropy was mostly done out of the spotlight. Upon his death, it was revealed that in his estate had he had left $650,000 to the Kansas University Endowment Association. The money was used to establish scholarships for a variety of students, including first-generation low-income students, women athletes, and men’s basketball student-athletes. $150,000 established the Wilt Chamberlain KU Basketball Clinic for Special Olympics Fund that aids the existing annual basketball clinic for Special Olympians that are run by the KU athletics department.

PART TWO 1980-1990

THE NBA LAGENDARY STAR 1984

CREATED BY

Dr IWAN SUWANDY

Limited private edition In CD-ROM

Jakarta@copyright Dr Iwan suwandy 2011

Introductions

The best NBA games during 1980-1990 was NBA Final 1984 between LA LAKERS vs BOSTON CELTIC

LA LAKERS WIN THE GAMES

The best NBA Star players from LA LAKERS were Kareem Abdul Jabbar no 33

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr., April 16, 1947) is a retired American basketball player, coach, actor, and author. He is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA‘s Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season MVP Awards. In college at UCLA, he played on three consecutive national championship teams, and his high school team won 71 consecutive games. At the time of his retirement, Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA’s all-time leader in points scored, games played, minutes played, field goals made, field goal attempts, blocked shots, defensive rebounds, and personal fouls.

Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr on April 16, 1947, and grew up in Manhattan in New York City, the only child of Cora Lillian, a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Sr, a transit police officer and jazz musician.[1][2] At birth, he weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (5.73 kg), and was twenty-two and a half inches (57.2 cm) long.[3] He was raised as a Catholic and attended St. Jude School in the Inwood section of Manhattan. Later in life he converted to Islam.[4] He initially joined the Nation of Islam in 1968, before retaking the Shahada and converting to Sunni Islam that same summer.[5]

From an early age he began his record-breaking basketball accomplishments. In high school, he led Power Memorial Academy to three straight New York City Catholic championships, a 71-game winning streak, and a 79–2 overall record.[6]

College

Lew Alcindor (Jabbar) with the reverse two hand dunk.

Lew Alcindor played three seasons for the UCLABruins from 1966–69 under coach John Wooden, contributing to the team’s three-year record of 88 wins and only two losses: one to the University of Houston (see below) and the other to crosstown rival USC who played a “stall game” (i.e., there was no shot clock in those days, so a team could hold the ball as long as it wanted before attempting to score).

During his college career, Alcindor was twice named Player of the Year (1967, 1969), was a three-time First Team All-American (1967–69), played on three NCAA basketball champion teams (1967, 1968, 1969), was honored as the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament (1967, 1968, 1969), and became the first-ever Naismith College Player of the Year in 1969.

The dunk was banned in college basketball after the 1967 season, primarily because of Alcindor’s dominant use of the shot.[6][8] It was not allowed again until 1976.

While playing for UCLA, he suffered a scratched left cornea on January 12, 1968, at the Cal game when he was struck by Tom Henderson of Cal in a rebound battle.[9] He would miss the next two games against Stanford and Portland.[6] This happened right before the momentous game against Houston. His cornea later would be scratched again during his pro career, subsequently causing him to wear goggles for protection.

On January 20, 1968, Alcindor and the UCLA Bruins faced the Houston Cougars in the first-ever nationally televised regular season college basketball game. In front of 52,693 fans at the Houston Astrodome, Elvin Hayes scored 39 points and had 15 rebounds—while Alcindor, who suffered from a scratch on his left cornea, was held to just 15 points—as Houston beat UCLA 71–69. The Bruins’ 47-game winning streak ended in what has been called the “Game of the Century“. Hayes and Alcindor would have a rematch in the 1968 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament where UCLA with a healthy Alcindor, would defeat Houston in the semi-finals 101–69, and go on to win the National Championship.

School records

Alcindor had an outstanding career at UCLA. As of the 2008–2009 season, he still holds or shares a number of individual records at UCLA:[11]

Most field goals in a single game: 26 (vs. Washington State, February 25, 1967)

Professional career

Milwaukee Bucks

The Harlem Globetrotters offered him $1 million to play for them, but he declined, and was picked first in the 1969 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks (who were in only their second season of existence.) The Bucks won a coin-toss with the Phoenix Suns for first pick. He was also chosen first overall in the 1969 American Basketball Association draft by the New York Nets.[12] The Nets believed that they had the upper hand in securing Alcindor’s services because he was from New York; however, when Alcindor told both the Bucks and the Nets that he would accept one offer only from each team, the Nets bid too low.

Lew Alcindor’s entry into the NBA was timely, as center Bill Russell had just left the Boston Celtics, and Wilt Chamberlain, though still effective, was 33 years old. Alcindor’s presence enabled the 1969–70 Bucks to claim second place in the NBA’s Eastern Division with a 56–26 record (up from 27–55 the previous year), and he was an instant star, ranking second in the league in scoring (28.8 ppg) and third in rebounding (14.5 rpg), for which he was awarded the title of NBA Rookie of the Year.[6]

The next season the Bucks acquired All-Star guard Oscar Robertson, known to sports fans as “the Big ‘O’.” Milwaukee went on to record the best record in the league with 66 victories in the 1970–71 NBA season, including a then-record of 20 straight wins. Alcindor was awarded his first of six NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, along with his first scoring title (31.7 ppg).[6] In the playoffs, the Bucks went 12–2 (including a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals), won the championship, and Alcindor was named Finals MVP. On May 1, 1971, the day after the Bucks won the NBA championship, he adopted the Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, its Arabic translation roughly “generous/noble (Kareem), servant of (Abdul) the mighty/stern one (Jabbar) [i.e., of God].”

Abdul-Jabbar remained a dominant force for Milwaukee, repeating as scoring champion (34.8 ppg) and NBA Most Valuable Player the following year, and helping the Bucks to repeat as division leaders for four straight years. In 1974, Abdul-Jabbar won his third MVP Award in five years and was among the top five NBA players in scoring (27.0 ppg, third), rebounding (14.5 rpg, fourth), blocked shots (283, second), and field goal percentage (.539, second).

While remaining relatively injury-free throughout his NBA career, Abdul-Jabbar twice broke his hand. The first time was during a pre-season game in 1974, when he was bumped hard and got his eye scratched, which angered him enough to punch the basket support stanchion. When he returned, after missing the first 16 games of the season, he started to wear protective goggles. The second time he broke his hand was in the opening game of the 1977–78 NBA season. Two minutes into the game, Abdul-Jabbar punched Milwaukee‘s Kent Benson in retaliation for an overly aggressive elbow. He was out for two months.

Although Abdul-Jabbar always spoke well of Milwaukee and its fans, he said that being in the Midwest did not fit his cultural needs and requested a trade to either New York or Los Angeles in October 1974.[13]

Los Angeles Lakers

In 1975, the Lakers acquired Abdul-Jabbar and reserve center Walt Wesley from the Bucks for center Elmore Smith, guard Brian Winters, and rookie “blue chippers” Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgeman. In the 1975–76 season, his first with the Lakers, he had a dominating season, averaging 27.7 points per game and leading the league in rebounding, blocked shots, and minutes played. His 1,111 defensive rebounds remains the NBA single-season record (defensive rebounds were not recorded prior to the 1973–74 season). Also it marked the last time anyone had 4,000 or more PRA (Points + Rebounds + Assists) in a single NBA season. He earned his fourth MVP award, but missed the post-season for the second straight year.

Once he joined the Lakers, Abdul-Jabbar began wearing his trademark goggles (he briefly ditched them in the 1979–80 season). Years of battling under NBA backboards, and being hit and scratched in the face in the process, had taken their toll on his eyes and he developed corneal erosion syndrome, where the eyes begin to dry out easily and cease to produce moisture. He once missed a game in the 1986–87 season due to his eyes drying out and swelling as a result.

In the 1976–77 season, Abdul-Jabbar had another strong season. He led the league in field goal percentage, finished second in rebounds and blocked shots, and third in points per game. He helped lead the Lakers to the best record in the NBA, and he won his record-tying fifth MVP award. In the playoffs, the Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference semi-finals, setting up a confrontation with the Portland Trail Blazers. The result was a memorable matchup, pitting Abdul-Jabbar against a young, injury-free Bill Walton. Although Abdul-Jabbar dominated the series statistically, Walton and the Trail Blazers (who were experiencing their first-ever run in the playoffs) swept the Lakers, behind Walton’s skillful passing and leadership.

Abdul-Jabbar’s play remained strong during the next two seasons, being named to the All-NBA Second Team twice, the All-Defense First Team once, and the All-Defense Second Team once. The Lakers, however, continued to be stymied in the playoffs, being eliminated by the Seattle SuperSonics in both 1978 and 1979.

In 1979, the Lakers acquired 1st overall draft pick Earvin “Magic” Johnson. The trade and draft paved the way for a Laker dynasty as they went on to become one of the most dominant teams of the 1980s, appearing in the finals eight times and winning five NBA championships. Individually, while Abdul-Jabbar was not the dominant center he had been in the 1970s, he experienced a number of highlight moments. Among them were his record sixth MVP award in 1980, four more All-NBA First Team designations, two more All-Defense First Team designations, the 1985 Finals MVP, and on April 5, 1984 breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record for career points. Later in his career, he bulked up to about 265 pounds, to be able to withstand the strain of playing the highly physical center position into his early 40s.

While in L.A., Abdul-Jabbar started doing yoga in 1976 to improve his flexibility, and was notable for his physical fitness regimen.[14] He says, “There is no way I could have played as long as I did without yoga.”[15]

In 1983, Abdul-Jabbar’s house burnt down, incinerating many of his belongings including his beloved jazz LP collection. Many Lakers fans sent and brought him albums, which he found uplifting.[16]

On June 28, 1989, after twenty professional seasons, Abdul-Jabbar announced his retirement. On his “retirement tour” he received standing ovations at games, home and away and gifts ranging from a yacht that said “Captain Skyhook” to framed jerseys from his basketball career to an Afghan rug. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls that in Abdul-Jabbar’s farewell game, many Lakers and Celtics legends participated. Every player wore Abdul-Jabbar’s trademark goggles and had to try a sky hook at least once, which led to comic results. The Lakers made the NBA Finals in each of Abdul-Jabbar’s final three seasons, defeating Boston in 1987, and Detroit in 1988. The Lakers lost to the Pistons in a four-game sweep in his final season. .

At the time of his retirement, Jabbar held the record for most games played by a single player in the NBA; this would later be broken by Robert Parish.

Post-NBA career

Abdul-Jabbar in 2006

Since 2005, Abdul-Jabbar has served as special assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. Abdul-Jabbar had been interested in coaching since his retirement, and given the influence he had on the league, he thought that the opportunity would present itself. However, during his playing years, Abdul-Jabbar had developed a reputation of being introverted and sullen. He did not speak to the press, leading to the impression that he disliked them. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls instances when Abdul-Jabbar brushed him off when Magic (as a ball boy) asked for his autograph, Abdul-Jabbar froze out reporters who gave him a too enthusiastic handshake or even hugged him, and refused to stop reading the newspaper while giving an interview. Many basketball observers, in addition to Abdul-Jabbar, believe that Kareem’s reticence, whether through disdain for the press corps or simply because of introversion, contributed to the dearth of coaching opportunities offered to Abdul-Jabbar by the NBA. In his words, he said he had a mindset he could not overcome, and proceeded through his career oblivious to the effect his reticence may have had on his coaching prospects in the future. Abdul-Jabbar said: “I didn’t understand that I also had affected people that way and that’s what it was all about. I always saw it like they were trying to pry. I was way too suspicious and I paid a price for it.”[16] Since he began lobbying for a coaching position in 1995, he has managed to obtain only low-level assistant and scouting jobs in the NBA, and a head coaching position only in a minor professional league.

Pearl Jam‘s Jeff Ament wrote the song “Sweet Lew” about a similar incident when he met Abdul-Jabbar whom he “idolized” at a charity game and got a “complete lack of response or interest”. Ament was upset by the incident. The song appears on the Pearl Jam’s B-Sides compilation Lost Dogs.[17]

Playing in Los Angeles facilitated Abdul-Jabbar’s trying his hand at acting. He made his film debut in Bruce Lee‘s posthumous 1978 film Game of Death, in which his character Hakim fought Billy Lo (played by Lee). His character was the last and most dangerous guardian that Bruce Lee’s character had to face. In the extended footage of the final fight scenes of the film (which were shot in 1973), which last about half an hour, Abdul-Jabbar and Lee fight on the highest level of a pagoda in which Lee’s character had to fight his way up. In real-life, Abdul-Jabbar was a student of Lee’s Jeet Kune Do fighting philosophy.

In 1980, he played co-pilot Roger Murdock in Airplane!.[6] Abdul-Jabbar has a memorable scene in which a little boy looks at him and remarks that he is in fact Abdul-Jabbar—spoofing the appearance of football star Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch as an airplane pilot in the 1957 drama Zero Hour!. Staying in character, Abdul-Jabbar states that he is merely Roger Murdock, an airline co-pilot, but the boy continues to insist that Abdul-Jabbar is “the greatest”, but that, according to his father, he doesn’t “work hard on defense” and “never really tries, except during the playoffs”. This causes Abdul-Jabbar’s character to snap, “The hell I don’t!”, then grab the boy and snarl he has “heard that crap since UCLA“, he “busts his buns every night” and the boy should tell his “old man to drag [Bill] Walton and [Bob] Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes”. When Murdock passes out later in the film, he is carried out wearing Abdul-Jabbar’s goggles and yellow Lakers’ shorts.

Abdul-Jabbar played the center position and is regarded as one of the best players of all time. He is the all-time leading NBA scorer with 38,387 points, having collected six titles, six regular season MVP and two Finals MVP awards, fifteen NBA First or Second Teams, a record nineteen NBA All-Star call-ups and averaging 24.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.6 blocks per game.[6] He is also the third all-time in registered blocks (3,189), which is even more impressive because this stat had not been recorded until the fourth year of his career (1974).

On offense, Abdul-Jabbar was an unstoppable low-post threat. In contrast to other low-post dominators like Wilt Chamberlain, Artis Gilmore or Shaquille O’Neal, Abdul-Jabbar was a relatively slender player, standing 7–2 but only weighing 225 lbs (though in his latter years the Lakers listed Abdul-Jabbar’s weight as 265). However, he made up for his relative lack of bulk by showing textbook finesse, strength and was famous for his ambidextrous skyhook shot (see below), which defenders found impossible to block. It contributed to his high .559 field goal accuracy, making him the eighth most accurate scorer of all time[25] and a feared clutch shooter. Abdul-Jabbar was also quick enough to run the “Showtime” fast break led by Magic Johnson and was well-conditioned, standing on the hardwood an average 36.8 minutes. In contrast to other big men, Abdul-Jabbar also could reasonably hit his free throws, finishing with a career 72% average.

On defense, Abdul-Jabbar maintained a dominant presence. He was selected to the NBA All-Defensive Team eleven times. He frustrated opponents with his superior shot-blocking ability, denying an average 2.6 shots a game.

As a teammate, Abdul-Jabbar exuded natural leadership and was affectionately called “Cap”[26] or “Captain” by his colleagues. He was also known for his strict fitness regime, which made him one of the most durable players of all time. In the NBA, his 20 seasons and 1,560 games are performances surpassed only by Robert Parish.

Abdul-Jabbar made the NBA’s 35th and 50th Anniversary Teams, and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players of All Time in 1996.[6]

Sky hook

Abdul-Jabbar was well known for his trademark “sky hook”, a hook shot in which he bent his entire body (rather than just the arm) like a straw in one fluid motion to raise the ball and then release it at the highest point of his arm’s arching motion. Combined with his long arms and great height (7 feet 2 inches), the sky hook was nearly impossible for a defender to block without goaltending. Only a few have blocked his legendary skyhook, including basketball greats Wilt Chamberlain and Hakeem Olajuwon. It was a reliable and feared offensive weapon and contributed to his high lifetime field goal percentage of .559. As a twist, he was adept at shooting the skyhook with either hand, which made him even more difficult to defend against. According to Abdul-Jabbar, he learned the move in fifth grade after practicing with the Mikan Drill and soon learned to value it, as it was “the only shot I could use that didn’t get smashed back in my face”.[27]

Johnson’s career achievements include three NBA MVP Awards, nine NBA Finals appearances, twelve All-Star games, and ten All-NBA First and Second Team nominations. He led the league in regular-season assists four times, and is the NBA’s all-time leader in assists per game, with an average of 11.2.[3] Johnson was a member of the “Dream Team“, the U.S. basketball team that won the Olympic gold medal in 1992.

Johnson was first dubbed “Magic” as a 15-year-old sophomore playing for Lansing’s Everett High School, when he recorded a triple-double of 36 points, 18 rebounds and 16 assists.[4] After the game, Fred Stabley Jr., a sports writer for the Lansing State Journal, gave him the moniker[11] despite the belief of Johnson’s mother, a Christian, that the name was sacrilegious.[4] In his final high school season, Johnson led Lansing Everett to a 27–1 win–loss record while averaging 28.8 points and 16.8 rebounds per game,[4] and took his team to an overtime victory in the state championship game.[12]

Johnson was drafted first overall in 1979 by the Los Angeles Lakers. Johnson said that what was “most amazing” about joining the Lakers was the chance to play alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,[19] the team’s 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) center who became the leading scorer in NBA history.[20] Despite Abdul-Jabbar’s dominance, he had failed to win a championship with the Lakers, and Johnson was expected to help them achieve that goal.[21] Johnson averaged 18.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 7.3 assists per game for the season, was selected to the NBA All-Rookie Team, and was named an NBA All-Star Game starter.[22]

The Lakers compiled a 60–22 record in the regular season and reached the 1980 NBA Finals,[23] in which they faced the Philadelphia 76ers, who were led by forwardJulius Erving. The Lakers took a 3–2 lead in the series, but Abdul-Jabbar, who averaged 33 points a game in the series,[24] sprained his ankle in Game 5 and could not play in Game 6.[21]Paul Westhead decided to start Johnson at center in Game 6; Johnson recorded 42 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists, and three steals in a 123–107 win, while playing guard, forward, and center at different times during the game.[21] Johnson became the only rookie to win the NBA Finals MVP award,[21] and his clutch performance is still regarded as one of the finest in NBA history.[5][25][26] He also became one of four players to win NCAA and NBA championships in consecutive years.[27]

Ups and downs (1980–83)

Early in the 1980–81 season, Johnson was sidelined after he suffered torn cartilage in his left knee. He missed 45 games,[18] and said that his rehabilitation was the “most down” he had ever felt.[28] Johnson returned before the start of the 1981 playoffs, but the Lakers’ then-assistant and future head coach Pat Riley later said Johnson’s much-anticipated return made the Lakers a “divided team”.[29] The 54-win Lakers faced the 40–42 Houston Rockets in the first round of playoffs,[30][31] where Houston upset the Lakers 2–1 after Johnson airballed a last-second shot in Game 3.[32]

During the off-season, Johnson signed a 25-year, $25 million contract with the Lakers, which was the highest-paying contract in sports history up to that point.[33] At the beginning of the 1981–82 season, Johnson had a heated dispute with Westhead, who Johnson said made the Lakers “slow” and “predictable”.[34] After Johnson demanded to be traded, Lakers owner Jerry Buss fired Westhead and replaced him with Riley. Although Johnson denied responsibility for Westhead’s firing,[35] he was booed across the league, even by Lakers’ fans.[4] Despite his off-court troubles, Johnson averaged 18.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 9.5 assists, and a league-high 2.7 steals per game, and was voted a member of the All-NBA Second Team.[18] He also joined Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson as the only NBA players to tally at least 700 points, 700 rebounds, and 700 assists in the same season.[12] The Lakers advanced through the 1982 playoffs and faced Philadelphia for the second time in three years in the 1982 NBA Finals. After a triple-double from Johnson in Game 6, the Lakers defeated the Sixers 4–2, as Johnson won his second NBA Finals MVP award.[36] During the championship series against the Sixers, Johnson averaged 16.2 points on .533 shooting, 10.8 rebounds, 8.0 assists, and 2.5 steals per game.[37] Johnson later said that his third season was when the Lakers first became a great team,[38] and he credited their success to Riley.[39]

During the 1982–83 NBA season, Johnson averaged 16.8 points, 10.5 assists, and 8.6 rebounds per game and earned his first All-NBA First Team nomination.[18] The Lakers again reached the Finals, and for a third time faced the Sixers, who featured centerMoses Malone as well as Erving.[40] With Johnson’s teammates Norm Nixon, James Worthy and Bob McAdoo all hobbled by injuries, the Lakers were swept by the Sixers, and Malone was crowned the Finals MVP.[40] In a losing effort against Philadelphia, Johnson averaged 19.0 points on .403 shooting, 12.5 assists, and 7.8 rebounds per game.[41]

Battles against the Celtics (1983–87)

Johnson battles the Boston Celtics Larry Bird for rebounding position in Game two of the 1985 NBA Finals at the Boston Garden.

In Johnson’s fifth season, he averaged a double-double of 17.6 points and 13.1 assists, as well as 7.3 rebounds per game.[18] The Lakers reached the Finals for the third year in a row, where Johnson’s Lakers and Bird’s Celtics met for the first time in the post-season.[42] The Lakers won the first game, and led by two points in Game 2 with 18 seconds to go, but after a layup by Gerald Henderson, Johnson failed to get a shot off before the final buzzer sounded, and the Lakers lost 124–121 in overtime.[42] In Game 3, Johnson responded with 21 assists in a 137–104 win, but in Game 4, he again made several crucial errors late in the contest. In the final minute of the game, Johnson had the ball stolen by Celtics center Robert Parish, and then missed two free throws that could have won the game. The Celtics won Game 4 in overtime, and the teams split the next two games. In the decisive Game 7 in Boston, as the Lakers trailed by three points in the final minute, opposing point guard Dennis Johnson stole the ball from Johnson, a play that effectively ended the series.[42] Friends Isiah Thomas and Mark Aguirre consoled him that night, talking until the morning in his Boston hotel room amidst fan celebrations on the street.[43][44] During the Finals, Johnson averaged 18.0 points on .560 shooting, 13.6 assists, and 7.7 rebounds per game.[45] Johnson later described the series as “the one championship we should have had but didn’t get”.[46]

In the regular season, Johnson averaged 18.3 points, 12.6 assists, and 6.2 rebounds per game and led the Lakers into the 1985 NBA Finals, where they faced the Celtics again. The series started poorly for the Lakers when they allowed an NBA Finals record 148 points to the Celtics in a 34-point loss in Game 1.[47] However, Abdul-Jabbar, who was now 38 years old, scored 30 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in Game 2, and his 36 points in a Game 5 win were instrumental in establishing a 3–2 lead for Los Angeles.[47] After the Lakers defeated the Celtics in six games, Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson, who averaged 18.3 points on .494 shooting, 14.0 assists, and 6.8 rebounds per game in the championship series,[48][49] said the Finals win was the highlight of their careers.[50]

Johnson again averaged a double-double in the 1985–86 NBA season, with 18.8 points, 12.6 assists, and 5.9 rebounds per game.[18] The Lakers advanced to the Western Conference Finals, but were unable to defeat the Houston Rockets, who advanced to the Finals in five games.[51] In the next season, Johnson averaged a career-high of 23.9 points, as well as 12.2 assists and 6.3 rebounds per game,[18] and earned his first regular season MVP award.[4][52] The Lakers met the Celtics for the third time in the NBA Finals, and in Game 4 Johnson hit a last-second hook shot over Celtics big men Parish and Kevin McHale to win the game 107–106.[53] The game-winning shot, which Johnson dubbed his “junior, junior, junior sky-hook“,[53] helped Los Angeles defeat Boston in six games. Johnson was awarded his third Finals MVP title after averaging 26.2 points on .541 shooting, 13.0 assists, 8.0 rebounds, and 2.33 steals per game.[53][54]

Repeat and falling short (1987–91)

Before the 1987–88 NBA season, Lakers coach Pat Riley publicly promised that they would defend the NBA title, even though no team had won consecutive titles since the Celtics did so in the 1969 NBA Finals.[55] Johnson had another productive season with averages of 19.6 points, 11.9 assists, and 6.2 rebounds per game.[18] In the 1988 playoffs, the Lakers survived two 4–3 series against the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks to reach the Finals and face Thomas and the Detroit Pistons,[56] known as the “Bad Boys” for their physical style of play.[57] Johnson and Thomas greeted each other with a kiss on the cheek before the opening tip of Game 1, which they called a display of brotherly love.[44][58][59] After the teams split the first six games, Lakers forward and Finals MVP James Worthy had his first career triple-double of 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists, and led his team to a 108–105 win.[60] Despite not being named MVP, Johnson had a strong championship series, averaging 21.1 points on .550 shooting, 13.0 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game.[61]

In the 1988–89 NBA season, Johnson’s 22.5 points, 12.8 assists, and 7.9 rebounds per game[18] earned him his second MVP award,[62] and the Lakers reached the 1989 NBA Finals, in which they again faced the Pistons. However, after Johnson went down with a hamstring injury in Game 2, the Lakers were no match for the Pistons, who swept them 4–0.[63]

Playing without the retired Abdul-Jabbar for the first time, Johnson won his third MVP award[64] after a strong 1989–90 NBA season in which he averaged 22.3 points, 11.5 assists, and 6.6 rebounds per game.[18] However, the Lakers bowed out to the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference semifinals, which was the Lakers’ earliest playoffs elimination in nine years.[65] Johnson performed well during the 1990–91 NBA season, with averages of 19.4 points, 12.5 assists, and 7.0 rebounds per game, and the Lakers reached the 1991 NBA Finals. There they faced the Chicago Bulls, led by shooting guardMichael Jordan, a five-time scoring champion regarded as the finest player of his era.[66][67] Although the series was portrayed as a matchup between Johnson and Jordan,[68] Bulls forward Scottie Pippen defended effectively against Johnson. Despite two triple-doubles from Johnson during the series, finals MVP Jordan led his team to a 4–1 win.[4] In the last championship series of his career, Johnson averaged 18.6 points on .431 shooting, 12.4 assists, and 8.0 rebounds per game.[69]

HIV announcement and Olympics (1991–92)

After a physical before the 1991–92 NBA season, Johnson discovered that he had tested positive for HIV. In a press conference held on November 7, 1991, Johnson made a public announcement that he would retire immediately.[70] He stated that his wife Cookie and their unborn child did not have HIV, and that he would dedicate his life to “battle this deadly disease”.[70] Johnson initially said that he did not know how he contracted the disease,[70] but later acknowledged that it was through having multiple sexual partners during his playing career.[71] At the time, only a small percentage of HIV-positive people had contracted it from heterosexual sex,[72][59] and it was initially rumored that Johnson was gay or bisexual, although he denied both.[59] Johnson later accused Isiah Thomas of spreading the rumors, a claim Thomas denied.[44][73] Johnson’s HIV announcement became a major news story in the United States,[74] and in 2004 was named as ESPN’s seventh most memorable moment of the past 25 years.[75] Many articles praised Johnson as a hero, and former U.S. President George H. W. Bush said, “For me, Magic is a hero, a hero for anyone who loves sports.”[76]

Despite his retirement, Johnson was voted by fans as a starter for the 1992 NBA All-Star Game at Orlando Arena, although his former teammates Byron Scott and A. C. Green said that Johnson should not play,[77] and several NBA players, including Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone, argued that they would be at risk of contamination if Johnson suffered an open wound while on court.[78] Johnson led the West to a 153–113 win and was crowned All-Star MVP after recording 25 points, 9 assists, and 5 rebounds.[79] The game ended after he made a last-minute three-pointer, and players from both teams ran onto the court to congratulate Johnson.[80]

Before the 1992–93 NBA season, Johnson announced his intention to stage an NBA comeback. After practicing and playing in several pre-season games, he returned to retirement before the start of the regular season, citing controversy over his return sparked by opposition from several active players.[12] During his retirement, Johnson has written a book on safer sex, run several businesses, worked for NBC as a commentator, and toured Asia and Australia with a basketball team that comprised former college and NBA players.[4]

He returned to the NBA as coach of the Lakers near the end of the 1993–94 NBA season, replacing Randy Pfund. After losing five of six games, Johnson announced he would resign after the season, choosing instead to purchase a 5% share of the team in June 1994.[4] In the following season, at the age of 36, Johnson attempted another comeback as a player. Playing power forward, he averaged 14.6 points, 6.9 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game in the last 32 games of the season.[18] After the Lakers lost to the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs,[83] Johnson retired permanently, saying, “I am going out on my terms, something I couldn’t say when I aborted a comeback in 1992.”[12]

Larry Bird was born in West Baden, Indiana, the son of Georgia (née Kerns) and Claude Joseph “Joe” Bird. He grew up in both West Baden and the adjacent town French Lick, which earned him the nickname “the Hick from French Lick” in his later basketball career. Financial troubles would plague the Bird family for most of Larry’s childhood. Bird recalled how his mother would make do on the family’s meager earnings: “If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she’d get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don’t mean she wouldn’t pay the bank, but the children always came first.”[3] According to Bird, his being poor as a child “motivates me to this day”.[3] He sometimes was sent to live with his grandmother due to the family’s struggles. The Bird family’s struggle with poverty was compounded by the alcoholism and personal difficulties of Joe Bird, who likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in the Korean War.[4] Joe and Georgia Bird divorced in 1975; Joe Bird committed suicide the same year.

In spite of his domestic woes, by the time he was a high schoolsophomore, Bird had become one of the better basketball players in French Lick. He started for French Lick/West Baden’s high school team, Springs Valley High School, where he left as the school’s all-time scoring leader. Bird’s high school coach, Jim Jones, was a key factor to Bird’s success. “Jonesie”, as Bird called him, would come help Bird and his friends practice any day of the week.[5] Bird would often go to the gym early, shoot between classes, and stay late into the evening. He quit both football and baseball to focus on basketball.

The Boston Celtics selected the 6’9″, 220-pound Bird 6th overall in the 1978 NBA Draft,[11][12] even though they were uncertain whether he would enter the NBA or remain at Indiana State to play his senior season. Bird ultimately decided to play his final college season, but the Celtics retained their exclusive right to sign him until the 1979 NBA Draft, because of the NBA’s “junior eligible” rule that existed at that time (allowing a collegiate player to be drafted when the player’s original “entering” class was graduating and giving them one calendar year to sign them, even if they went back to college). Shortly before that deadline, Bird agreed to sign with the Celtics for a US $650,000 a year contract, making him at the time the highest-paid rookie in the history of the NBA. Shortly afterwards, the NBA draft eligibility rules were changed to prevent teams from drafting players before they were ready to sign. The rule is called the Bird Collegiate Rule.

Bird’s impact on the Celtics was immediate. The Celtics were 29–53 during the 1978–79 season, but with Bird the team improved to 61–21 in the 1979–80 season, posting the league’s best regular season record. Bird’s collegiate rival, Magic Johnson, also had entered the NBA in 1979, joining the Los Angeles Lakers. In 1980, despite a strong rookie season from Johnson, Bird was named the league’s Rookie of the Year and was voted onto the Eastern Conference All-Star team (an honor he would receive for each of his 12 full seasons in the NBA). For the 1980 season, Bird led the Celtics in scoring (21.3 points/game), rebounding (10.4 rebounds/game), steals (143), and minutes played (2,955) and was second in assists (4.5 assists/game) and three-pointers (58). Though Boston was beaten by the more athletic Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals that year, Bird’s addition to the team had renewed the promise of Celtic glory.

In his second season, Bird led the Celtics into the playoffs, where they faced off for a second consecutive year with Julius Erving‘s Philadelphia 76ers. Bird helped the Celtics overcome a 3–1 deficit by winning the last 3 games by 2, 2, and 1 point margins, propelling them into the NBA Finals, where they defeated the Houston Rockets in six games with Bird averaging 15.3 points on .419 shooting, 15.3 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game.[13] It would be the first of three championships in Bird’s career, as well as the first of his five Finals appearances.

The additions of Bird and Johnson rejuvenated the NBA, which had suffered from low attendance and minimal television interest through much of the 1970s. Immediately upon their entry into the league, the two players became repeating presences in the NBA Finals. Johnson’s Lakers won the championship in 1980, Bird’s Celtics captured the NBA title in 1981, and Johnson’s Lakers wrested it back in 1982. Bird and Johnson first dueled in the 1979 NCAA title game; as professional basketball players, they would face off numerous times during the 1980s, including the NBA Finals of 1984, 1985 and 1987. Lakers versus Celtics, and specifically Bird versus Magic, quickly became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of basketball.

In 1984, the Celtics defeated the Lakers in a seven-game Finals, winning game seven 111–102.[14] Bird averaged 27.4 points on .484 shooting and 14 rebounds a game during the series,[15] earning the award of Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP). Bird was also named the league regular season MVP for that year.[16] In 1985, however, the Lakers avenged the loss, defeating the Celtics in game 6 of the Finals in the Boston Garden. In a losing effort against Los Angeles, Bird averaged 23.8 points on .449 shooting, 8.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game.[17] That year, the NBA again named Bird the league MVP.[18]

On 01985-03-12 March 12, 1985, in a game played between the Celtics and Atlanta Hawks at the University of New Orleans Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana, Bird scored a career high 60 points in a tremendous shooting display. Bird scored all 19 of his points in the third quarter without the aid of a free throw; instead, he scored on jump shots from 20 feet and out. Bird scored Boston’s last sixteen points in the game. In the fourth quarter, he made a fadeaway three-point shot while being fouled. He was not given continuation and the basket was not allowed (instead it was ruled a non-shooting foul and he received two free throws). Bird’s 59th and 60th points were scored on a 17-foot jump shot at the buzzer. For the game, Bird officially shot 22 of 36 from the field, 1 of 4 from three-point range, and 15 of 16 from the free throw line.

Boston would have another great season the next year, with help from another Hall of Famer, Bill Walton. Walton, whose up and down career had been plagued by foot injuries, was looking for a team, and after having been turned down by the Lakers called Celtics president and general manager Red Auerbach in a last ditch effort to close out his career on an upswing. Because of Walton’s reputation for being injury prone, Auerbach was initially unwilling to take a risk on him, but Bird, who happened to be in Auerbach’s office at the time of Walton’s call, urged him to sign Walton, saying that if Walton felt he was healthy enough to play, it was all Bird needed to hear.

With Walton backing up Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, the Celtics would return to the finals in 1986, albeit not against Johnson and the Lakers, who lost in the Western Conference Finals to the Houston Rockets. The 1986 Celtic team, which finished the regular season 67–15 and defeated the Rockets in six games, is generally considered to be the best of Bird’s career. Bird again was named the Finals’ MVP for that year, averaging 24 points on .482 shooting, 9.7 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game for the series.[19] He also won his third consecutive league MVP award,[20] a feat matched only by the great Celtic center Bill Russell and the dominant Wilt Chamberlain, who played for Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

In 1987, the Celtics made their last Finals appearance of Bird’s career, fighting through difficult series against the Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons but as they reached the NBA Finals, the Celtics, hampered by devastating injuries, lost to a dominant Lakers team which had won 65 games during the season. The Celtics ended up losing to the Lakers in six games, with Bird averaging 24.2 points on .445 shooting, 10 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game in the championship series.[21] The Celtics would fall short in 1988 losing to the Pistons in 6 games in the Eastern Conference Finals as the Pistons made up from the heartbreak the previous season. Between them, Bird and Johnson captured eight NBA championships during the 1980s, with Magic getting five and Bird three. During the 1980s, either Boston or Los Angeles appeared in every NBA Finals. [22][23]

Throughout the 1980s, contests between the Celtics and the Lakers—both during the regular season and in the Finals—attracted enormous television audiences. The first regular season game between the Celtics and the Lakers in the 1987–88 season proved to be a classic with Magic Johnson banking in an off balance shot from near the 3-point line at the buzzer for a 115–114 Lakers win at Boston Garden.[24] The historical rift between the teams, which faced each other several times in championship series of the 1960s, fueled fan interest in the rivalry. Not since Bill Russell squared off against Wilt Chamberlain had professional basketball enjoyed such a marquee matchup. The apparent contrast between the two players and their respective teams seemed scripted for television: Bird, the introverted small-town hero with the blue-collar work ethic, fitted perfectly with the throwback, hard-nosed style of the Celtics, while the stylish, gregarious Johnson ran the Lakers’ fast-paced “Showtime” offense amidst the bright lights and celebrities of Los Angeles. A 1986 Converse commercial for its “Weapon” line of basketball shoes (endorsed by both Bird and Johnson) reflected the perceived dichotomy between the two players. In the commercial, Bird is practicing alone on a rural basketball court when Johnson pulls up in a sleek limousine and challenges him to a one-on-one match.

Despite the intensity of their rivalry, Bird and Johnson became friends off the court. Their friendship blossomed when the two players worked together to film the 1986 Converse commercial, which depicted them as archenemies. Johnson appeared at Bird’s retirement ceremony on February 4, 1993 and emotionally described Bird as a “friend forever.”

1988–1992: The twilight years

In 1988, Bird had the best statistical season of his career, but the Celtics failed to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in five years, losing to the Pistons in six games during the Eastern Conference Finals. Bird started the 1988–89 season with Boston, but ended his season after six games to have bone spurs surgically removed from both of his heels. He returned to the Celtics in 1989, but debilitating back problems and an aging Celtic roster prevented him from regaining his mid-1980s form. Nonetheless, through the final years of his career, Bird maintained his status as one of the premier players in the game. He averaged over 20 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists a game in his last three seasons with the Celtics, and shot better than 45% from the field in each. Bird led the Celtics to playoff appearances in each of those three seasons.

Bird’s body, however, continued to break down. He had been bothered by back problems for years, and his back became progressively worse. After leading the Celtics to a 29–5 start to the 1990–91 season, he missed 22 games due to a compressed nerve root in his back, a condition that would eventually lead to his retirement. He had off-season surgery to remove a disc from his back, but his back problems continued and he missed 37 games during the 1991–92 season. His past glory would be briefly rekindled, however, in a memorable game that season in which he scored 49 points in a riveting double overtime victory over the Portland Trailblazers. During the 1992 Eastern Conference semi-finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers Bird missed 4 of 7 games in the series due to these recurring back problems.

Following his Olympic experience, on August 18, 1992, Bird announced his retirement as an NBA player. He finished his career with averages of more than 24 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists per game, while shooting 49.6% from the field, 88.6% from the free throw line and 37.6% from three-point range. Following Bird’s departure, the Celtics promptly retired his jersey number 33.

The Celtics employed Bird as a special assistant in the team’s front office from 1992 until 1997. In 1997, Bird accepted the position of coach of the Indiana Pacers and said he would be on the job for no more than 3 years. Despite having no previous coaching experience, Bird led the Pacers to a 58–24 record—the franchise’s best as an NBA team at the time—in the 1997–98 season, and pushed the Bulls to seven games in the Eastern Conference finals. He was named the NBA Coach of the Year for his efforts, becoming the only person in NBA history to have won both the MVP and Coach of the Year awards. He then led the Pacers to two consecutive Central Division titles in 1999 and 2000, and a berth in the NBA finals in 2000.

Bird resigned as Pacers coach shortly after the end of the 2000 season, following through on his initial promise to coach for only 3 years. In 2003, he returned as the Pacers’ President of Basketball Operations, where he oversees team personnel and coaching moves, as well as the team’s draft selections. Bird promoted David Morway to general manager in 2008, but Bird still has the final say in basketball matters.

For the 2008 NBA Finals, which featured a rematch of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, Bird appeared in a split-screen advertisement with Magic Johnson (as part of the “There Can Only Be One” campaign which had played throughout the 2008 NBA Playoffs but to that point only featured players from the two teams competing in a given series) discussing the meaning of rivalries.

Bird was widely considered one of Red Auerbach’s favorite players. He considered Bird to be the greatest basketball player of all time.[26] Auerbach was so enamored with the player that he drafted him out of Indiana State and waited a year before Bird was eligible to suit up for the Celtics. During his introductory press conference, after Auerbach’s contentious negotiations with agent Bob Woolf, Bird announced he “would have played for free.” This was after Woolf asked for the most lucrative contract in NBA history, to which Auerbach was quick to point out that Bird hadn’t played a game in the NBA yet.[citation needed]

Player profile

Bird, a versatile wing man who played the power forward and small forward positions, is considered one of the greatest players of all time, to which his twelve All-Star team nominations are a testament. The sharpshooting Bird made his name stepping up his performance in critical situations, and is credited with a long list of dominating games, buzzer beaters and clutch defensive plays. He won two NBA Finals MVP and three regular-season MVP awards. He won them all in a row, a feat only shared by Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.

Bird possessed an uncanny and unparalleled ability to anticipate and react to the strategies of his opponents. His talent for recognizing the moves of opponents and teammates prompted his first coach with the Celtics, Bill Fitch, to nickname him “Kodak“, because he seemed to formulate mental pictures of every play that took place on the court.

Bird scored 24.3 points per game in his career on a high .496 field goal average, a stellar .886 free throw average (9th best all-time) and a 37.6 percentage on 3-point shots. Bird was also a good rebounder (10.0 rebound career average) and an excellent playmaker (6.3 assist career average). His multidimensional game made him a consistent triple-double threat; Bird currently ranks fifth all-time in triple-doubles with 59, not including the 10 he recorded in the playoffs. Bird’s lifetime player efficiency rating (PER) is 23.5, 18th all-time, a further testament to his all around game.[27] Additionally, he is the only 20, 10, 5 player in NBA history (points, rebounds, assists per game) with a lifetime PRA rating (points + rebounds + assists per game) of 40.6, which is 8th all-time. Bird was the first player in NBA history to shoot 50% or better on field goals, 40% on 3-pointers, and 90% on free-throws in a single NBA season while achieving the league minimum for makes in each category. Bird accomplished this feat twice and is second only to Steve Nash for seasons in the 50-40-90 Club.

Bird is also remembered as an excellent defender. While he was neither fast nor quick-footed, and could not always shut down an individual player one-on-one, he consistently displayed a knack for anticipating the moves of his opponent, allowing him to intercept passes and create turnovers. His 1,556 career steals ranks 27th all-time.[28] Unspectacular but effective defensive moves, such as jumping into a passing lane to make a steal or allowing his man to step past and drive to the hoop, then blocking the opponent’s shot from behind, were staples of Bird’s defensive game. In recognition of his defensive abilities, Bird was named to three All-Defensive Second Teams.

Bird’s humble roots were the source of his most frequently used moniker, “The Hick From French Lick”. Other observers called him “The Great White Hope”.[4] He has also acquired the nickname “Larry Legend”.[29]

Bird’s competitive nature often emerged in nearly constant trash-talking on the court. Some notable examples follow:

During the three-point shooting contest on All-Star Weekend 1986, Bird entered the locker room, looked around without saying a word, then finally said, “I want all of you to know I am winning this thing. I’m just looking around to see who’s gonna finish up second.” He won the shooting contest.

During one game on Christmas Day against the Indiana Pacers, before the game Bird told Chuck Person that he had a Christmas present waiting for him. During the game, when Person was on the bench, Bird shot a three-pointer on the baseline right in front of Person. Immediately after releasing the ball, Bird said to Person, “Merry fucking Christmas!”, and then the shot went in. This was no doubt inspired by Person (nicknamed the “Rifleman”) stating prior to the game that “The Rifleman is Coming, and He’s Going Bird Hunting.”

Reggie Miller recalled his encounter with Larry Bird’s legendary trash talking ability in his book “I Love Being The Enemy”. Reggie tried to disrupt Larry’s concentration when he was shooting free throws late in a game. Larry glared at him, made the first free throw and said, “You got to be kidding me. Rook, I’m the best shooter in the league right now. In the league. Understand? And you’re up here trying to say something?”[30] Then Larry buried the second free throw.

Late in a tied game against the Seattle SuperSonics, Bird told Supersonics forward Xavier McDaniel, who was guarding him, “I’m going to get [the ball] right here and I am going to bury it in your face.” As McDaniel remembers it, he responded by saying, “I know, I’ll be waiting.” After a timeout, Bird made two baseline cuts, then posted in the exact spot he had indicated to McDaniel, paused, turned, and made it in his face. He finished up the sequence by telling McDaniel, “I didn’t mean to leave two seconds on the clock.”[31][32]

On November 9, 1984, Bird was ejected along with Julius Erving in the third quarter after an on court scuffle. At the point of both ejections, Bird had outscored Erving 42 to 6. During the game, Bird had continuously informed Erving of their tallies with every chance he got to score. Bird denies this stating that it was teammate “M.L. (Carr) talking trash from the bench” during that game.[33] Eventually a shoving match ensued, then swings taken by both players, and finally a bench-clearing brawl.

Kevin Edward McHale (born December 19, 1957) is a retired American professional basketball player and current head coach of the Houston Rockets.[1] After his playing career, he worked for the Minnesota Timberwolves as the team’s general manager and later its coach. He was fired as coach in June 2009. McHale then worked as an analyst for NBA TV and Turner Sports.

Kevin McHale was born to Paul Austin McHale and Josephine Patricia Starcevich in Hibbing, Minnesota.[2] In his senior season at Hibbing High School, he was named Minnesota’s Mr. Basketball of 1976 and led his squad to a runner-up finish in the AA Minnesota State Championship game.

In 1992, McHale was elected to the Minnesota State High School League Hall of Fame.

Personal life

On June 30, 1982, he married his wife Lynn. They have five children.

In 1990 and again in 1991, he appeared as himself in two episodes of Cheers, a television situation comedy set in Boston.

College career

The 6 ft 10 in (209 cm) McHale played basketball at the power forward position for the University of Minnesota from 1976 to 1980, with career averages of 15.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.

He was named All-Big Ten in 1979 and 1980 and still ranks second in school history in career points (1704) and rebounds (950).

In 1995, to coincide with the University of Minnesota’s 100th anniversary, he was selected as top player in the history of University of Minnesota men’s basketball.

McHale is famous for an encounter with Chuck Foreman in the Gopher locker room. Foreman, a famous Minnesota Vikings player at the time, was congratulating the Gophers on a hard fought victory. As Foreman was shaking all the players’ hands, when he arrived at the then-unknown power forward, McHale displayed his comic wit: “Why hello, Mr. Foreman. What do you do for a living?”[3]

NBA playing career

Early professional playing career

Heading into the 1980 NBA Draft the Celtics held the number one overall pick. But in a shrewd pre-draft trade, considered by some to be among the most lopsided in NBA history, Boston Celtics President Red Auerbach dealt the top pick and an additional first-round pick to the Golden State Warriors for center Robert Parish and the Warriors’ first-round pick, the third overall. With that pick the Celtics chose McHale.

McHale’s stay in Boston got off to a rocky start as he held out for a large contract, even threatening to play in Italy[citation needed], before signing a three-year deal with the Celtics. Backing up Larry Bird and Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell at forward, McHale made an immediate impact and was named to the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team in his rookie season. Boston finished with the NBA’s best record that year.

In the playoffs the Celtics swept the Chicago Bulls in the first round. In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics faced a 3–1 deficit against the Philadelphia 76ers. But Boston won the last three games of the series, including Game 6 on Philadelphia’s home court. McHale helped save the Game 6 win by blocking Andrew Toney‘s shot and corralling the rebound with 16 seconds left to protect the Celtics’ one-point lead. In the NBA Finals, Boston defeated the Houston Rockets in six games to capture the club’s fourteenth championship.

The Celtics failed to advance to the NBA Finals the next two seasons. Philadelphia exacted a measure of revenge in the 1982 Eastern Conference Final, beating Boston at its home arena, the Boston Garden, in a seventh game. In the 1983 Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Celtics were swept by the Milwaukee Bucks, leading to the firing of head coach Bill Fitch.

Following the 1982–83 season McHale’s contract with the Celtics expired, and the New York Knicks signed him to a contract offer sheet. Auerbach retaliated by signing three of New York’s top free agent players to offer sheets. The Knicks elected to re-sign their players and give up their pursuit of McHale. McHale eventually re-signed with Boston, his $1 million per season contract making him the fourth-highest paid player in the NBA.

After surviving a tough seven-game semifinal battle with the Knicks, the Celtics avenged the previous season’s playoff loss to Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Finals. Boston would face the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in a highly-anticipated matchup.

In Game 4 of the finals, with the Celtics trailing in both the game and the series, McHale delivered a hard foul to Kurt Rambis, violently flinging him down by his throat, as the Lakers’ forward raced to the basket. The physical play touched off a bench-clearing scuffle. Boston came back to win the game in overtime and tie the series at two games apiece. They eventually prevailed in seven games to win the franchise’s fifteenth championship.

McHale continued to come off the bench during first half of the 1984–1985 season, but moved into a starting role in February 1985 after Cedric Maxwell injured a knee. On March 3 versus the Detroit Pistons McHale had his greatest scoring night, setting the Celtics’ single-game scoring record with 56 points.[4] Two nights later McHale scored 42 points against the Knicks, the only other time in his career he topped 40 points in a game. The 98 points in consecutive games is still a Celtics’ record. On March 12, just nine days after McHale scored 56, Larry Bird established a new Celtics’ single-game scoring mark by pouring in 60 points versus the Atlanta Hawks.

Boston captured its second straight Eastern Conference title but was upended in the NBA Finals in six games by the rival Lakers. McHale led the Celtics in scoring (26.0) and rebounding (10.7) versus the Lakers, including a 32-point, 16-rebound performance in the decisive sixth game.

The 1985–1986 edition of the Boston Celtics won the franchise’s sixteenth NBA Championship and is considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history.[5]

The Celtics acquired former NBA Most Valuable PlayerBill Walton in a trade from the Los Angeles Clippers in September 1985, and added the 6 ft 11 in (211 cm) center to its already-formidable frontline. Boston sent Cedric Maxwell to the Clippers to complete the trade, clearing the way for McHale to move into a full time starting role. McHale averaged better than 20-points per game for the first time in his career (21.3) and finished thirteenth in the NBA Most Valuable Player voting.

He joined starters Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge as the Celtics steamrolled the NBA with a league-best 67–15 record. The team set a then-NBA record by finishing with an 82–18 win-loss record (including playoffs), breaking the record of 81 victories by the 1971–72 Lakers.

Boston also set the NBA mark for most home victories in one season, finishing 50–1 (including playoffs) in 48 games in the Boston Garden and three games in Hartford, Connecticut. The Portland Trail Blazers were the only team to beat Boston at home, winning 121–103 in Boston on December 6, 1985. (The Celtics did not lose again at home until more than a year later, when Lakers beat them 117–110 on December 12, 1986.)

Boston won 41 of its first 50 games, including two victories over the Lakers. In a rout of the Clippers on December 30, 1985, McHale set his single-game high in rebounds with 18 (a mark he tied versus the Pistons in 1989).

An extremely durable player through the first five seasons of his career, McHale missed 14 games in early 1986 due to an injured Achilles tendon in his left ankle, but he was healthy when the playoffs began. Boston rolled through the Eastern Conference, winning 11 of 12 games versus Chicago, Atlanta and Milwaukee.

For the second time in five years the Celtics faced Houston in the NBA Finals, and the result was the same as in 1981, as Boston won the title in six games. McHale averaged 25.8 points per game in the finals to lead all scorers.

Middle career: the “torture chamber”

“When I was healthy, I always felt I could score,” McHale once told reporters. “When it went into what I called ‘The torture chamber,’ I knew it was in.”[6]

By his seventh pro season, McHale had rehearsed and refined his low-post moves and had become one of the NBA’s most dominant offensive forces, out-leaping, out-spinning and out-maneuvering defender after defender in his “torture chamber”. McHale was never better than the 1986–1987 season, setting career highs in scoring (26.1) and rebounding (9.9). He also became the first player in NBA history to shoot sixty percent or better from the field (60.4%) and eighty percent or better from the free throw line (83.6%) in the same season. McHale was named to the All-NBA First Team, was named the NBA’s best defensive player by the league’s coaches, and finished fourth in the Most Valuable Player voting behind Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Larry Bird.

In nine games from February 23, 1987, through March 13, McHale played arguably the best stretch of basketball in his career. He averaged 30.7 points and 10 rebounds per game while shooting a staggering 71.7 percent from the floor. During this stretch McHale scored his season-high in points, 38 versus the Pistons on March 1.

In a win at Chicago on March 27, McHale broke the navicular bone in his right foot. He ignored doctors’ advice that the injury could be career-threatening and continued to play. In the playoffs a hobbled McHale averaged 39 minutes per game and connected on 58 percent of his shots as Boston once again won the Eastern Conference title. Boston swept the Bulls in the first round for the second straight year and survived two seven-game series with the Bucks and Pistons. A tired and hurting Celtics team could not defend its championship, losing to the Lakers in six games in the NBA Finals.

Off-season surgery on his injured right foot and ankle forced McHale to sit out the first month of the 1987–1988 season He scored 22 points in 22 minutes of play in his return to the Celtics on December 1, 1987, versus Atlanta.

Teammate Danny Ainge once called McHale “The Black Hole“, joking that when the basketball was passed inside to McHale it disappeared because he rarely passed it back. But in a win over the Dallas Mavericks on April 3, 1988, McHale played the role of passer, distributing a career high 10 assists.

The Celtics won 57 games and made their fifth straight appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals. McHale shot 60 percent from the field and averaged a career playoff-high 25.4 points per game as Boston defeated the Knicks in four games and the Hawks in a thrilling seven-game semi-final series. The Detroit Pistons were too strong for the Celtics this time around and defeated Boston in six games in the conference final. Head coach K. C. Jones retired at the end of the season, and the Celtics of the Bird-McHale-Parish era would never again advance past the conference semi-finals.

Later career

Injuries limited Larry Bird to just six games in 1988–89 and the Celtics slipped to 42–40. New head coach Jimmy Rodgers coaxed the team into the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final seed behind the play of McHale and Parish and second-year guard Reggie Lewis.

The Celtics faced the Pistons in the playoffs for the third straight year. Detroit bottled up McHale this time around, holding him to 19 points per game and less than 50 percent shooting from the field. The Pistons easily swept the Celtics en route to their first NBA Championship.

The 1989–90 season marked the last time McHale was healthy enough to play in all 82 regular season games for the Celtics, but the season was one of discontent for Boston. Second-year point guard Brian Shaw left the team to play in Europe after a salary dispute, and Larry Bird—back from his injuries—was criticized by teammates, including McHale, for taking too many shots and trying to dominate games on his own.

Rodgers moved McHale back into his old “sixth man” role for the majority of the regular season; McHale’s scoring dipped into the teens coming off the bench. With 23 games to play and Boston just nine games above .500, Rodgers decided to put McHale back into the starting lineup. McHale averaged 24.2 points and 9 rebounds down the stretch as the Celtics went 18–5 and finished just a game behind Philadelphia in the Atlantic Division.

McHale became the first player in twenty years to finish in the NBA’s top ten in field goal percentage (seventh) and free throw percentage (fifth) in the same season.

Boston took the first two games of its first-round playoff series with the Knicks, including a record-setting 157–128 blowout in Game 2. In a shocking reversal the Knicks fought back and won the last three games of the series, bouncing the stunned Celtics from the playoffs. Head coach Jimmy Rodgers was fired following the playoff disappointment.

McHale contemplated retirement in the off-season after having another surgery performed on his balky right ankle, but he came back for the 1990–91 season. Boston paired young backcourt players Lewis, Dee Brown, Kevin Gamble and Brian Shaw—back from his year in Europe—with Bird, McHale and Parish and hired Chris Ford, a longtime assistant coach and member of the Celtics’ 1981 championship team, to be its head coach.

The season got off to a promising start as Boston sprinted to a 29–5 record, but the Celtics were soon slowed by injuries to McHale (ankle) and Bird (back). McHale missed 14 regular season games and Bird 22, as the Celtics limped to a 27–21 record over the last three months of the season. Boston defeated the Indiana Pacers in five games in a hotly-contested first round playoff matchup, but for the third time in four years the Celtics were eliminated by Detroit, this time in a six-game semi-final series.

McHale played in a career-low 56 games and Bird played in just 45, as each suffered through an injury-plagued 1991–92 season. Boston struggled for most of the regular season but got hot as the playoffs approached, winning 15 of its last 16 games and finishing with 51 wins, the third-most in the Eastern Conference.

The Celtics swept the Pacers in the first round, but were defeated in seven games in the conference semi-finals by the younger, quicker Cleveland Cavaliers. Bird retired from the NBA three months later.

The 1992–93 season was McHale’s last in the NBA. McHale played in 71 games, but he was severely hampered by leg and back injuries. He averaged just 10.7 points per game and shot less than 50 percent from the floor (45.9%) for the only time in his career.

In the first round of the NBA playoffs against the Charlotte Hornets the Celtics were stunned by the loss of Lewis, their leading scorer. He collapsed on the court during Game 1 and was diagnosed with what eventually proved to be a fatal heart condition. McHale performed brilliantly in the series. He averaged 19.6 points per game and shot 58 percent from the field—including 30 points and 10 rebounds in Game 2—but Boston fell to the Hornets in four games.

McHale announced his retirement while talking with reporters at the scorer’s table after the Game 4 loss in Charlotte.

Possessing a wide variety of offensive moves close to the basket the agile, long-armed McHale played in seven National Basketball Association All-Star Games between 1984 and 1991. McHale’s finest season came in 1986–87 when he was named to the All-NBA First Team as a forward. He led the NBA in field goal percentage in 1987 and 1988, shooting 60.4 percent each season. Also a standout defensive player, McHale was selected to the NBA All-Defensive First or Second Team six times. He twice blocked nine shots in a game, the most ever by a Boston Celtics’ player (blocked shots did not become an official NBA statistic until the 1974 season).

In 971 regular season games McHale averaged 17.9 points and 7.3 rebounds and in 169 post-season games averaged 18.8 points and 7.4 rebounds.[7]

Nobody has seen a pop in their card values like Westbrook who has taken full advantage of the big stage during the NBA Playoffs. The bad news is that he is lighting up Derek Fisher, who as a Lakers fan myself, know full well that I could strap it up and score 20 on Fish. Sad but true.

In game 5 during the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. L.A. Lakers series Kobe Bryant kept Russell Westbrook in check. I mentioned last month how I hadn’t seen Westbrook play much, now I have seen him for 5 games straight, and he has some good and bad to his game.

Very athletic, quick, and deceptively strong. Poor outside shooter, and commits way too many turnovers. I personally don’t think he will be as good a player as the two rookie PG’s from the 09/10 class – Tyreke Evans and Stephen Curry. But that’s just me. Westbrook has a lot to work on to be an elite PG in the NBA. It’s one thing to light up Derek Fisher, I want to see him be more consistent.

Durant has had an up and down series versus the Lakers, in large part because Ron Artest is one of the better 1 on 1 defenders in the league. Collectors love Durant, even if he does take a few too many bad shots…🙂

I expect the Durant and Westbrook love to cool if they eventually lose to the Lakers in the 1st round of the NBA Playoffs. Look to pick up some rookie cards during the off-season when they get bounced and the bandwagon clears out.

Michael Jordan high end basketball cards still DOMINATE the eBay most watched basketball card lists. His cards are seemingly always at the top of the list, no matter how many points Russell Westbrook has dropped on Derek Fisher.

Collectors love his Upper Deck Exquisite dual cards with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. With Upper Deck on the ropes financially, it will be interesting to see what happens to their autograph deal with Jordan. You know another company, possibly Panini, would LOVE to get some Jordan autograph and game used cards into their products.

As mentioned in the Jordan write-up, with Upper Deck’s future up in the air, will they part ways with James? While I wonder if Panini would want Jordan, I KNOW they would like to get a shot of LeBron and at the very least pay some big bucks to get him to sign some cards.

This is what happens when you play well in the playoffs. It gets you back in the hearts and minds of collectors. Deron Williams rookie cards have been all over the eBay most watched basketball cards lists. Specifically collectors are trying to get a 05/06 Upper Deck Exquisite Patch Auto /99.

I’ve always like Deron Williams, and if he ever gets some help in Utah, or bolts to a new city, this guy will one day be a winner.

Basketball collectors love their point guards! Even though the Bulls got bounced out of the 09/10 NBA Playoffs by LeBron and the Cleveland Cavs, fans of Derrick Rose have pushed the value of his 2008/09 rookie cards higher.

Look for Rose to be one and done on the hot list, but if the Bulls can get a few more skilled players around him, perhaps they will make a deeper playoff run to fuel Derrick Rose rookie card prices higher.

Tyreke just won the NBA Rookie of the Year, but slipped a few places on the hot list because the Sacramento Kings did not make the playoffs. This is a guy I like. I see him being a better player, then all the point guards ahead of him on this months basketball card hot list: Westbrook, Williams, and Rose.

Keep an eye on the prices for Evans autograph rookie cards, which have come down from their early season hype. Look to pick up a card or two after the 2010 NBA Draft when basketball collectors are distracted by a new wave of rookies. Then just hope the Kings can find a way to win, because that will set Tyreke’s rookie cards back on fire.

The KNBR radio guys in the Bay Area love this guy! They were all so mad that Tyreke Evans beat him out for the 09/10 NBA Rookie of the Year. Curry kind of came on later in the season which hurt his chances, but his talent is unquestioned at this point.

The problem Tyreke and Stephen have is that they are on bad basketball teams. That will have to improve for Tyreke and Curry to ever have long lasting success in the hobby.

I mentioned last month how I didn’t think that Jennings would be back on the hot list – shows you how much I know about the Eastern Conference. I had a chance to watch the Bucks beat the Hawks in game 5 of their 1st round series and liked what I saw out of Jennings.

He has a lot to work on, much like Westbrook, but the skills are there to be a great NBA point guard. Jennings performance in the playoffs might push him past Evans and Curry in the May Basketball Hot List Edition.